Breezy
by NeroLieto
Summary: Bree Montero is a loud, clumsy American girl transferring to Hogwarts. She thought things would be quiet and easy in rainy old England, until she met two crazy red headed boys and got caught up in the life of Harry Potter. Begins in GoF, continues through til DH. Lighthearted and amusing, George/OC
1. New Kid

I hated England.

It's cold, it's always overcast and raining, and it was just so dreary. Everything was so blank… The buildings, the people, it's all so plain and grey.

So, no matter what my Mother may tell our relatives and everybody else she encounters, moving from sunny Los Angeles to the heart of dreary old England was anything but a _'mutual family decision.'_ If anything in this situation were left to me, I'd be sitting on my ass in the lovely sun tanning up outside of my house back in America. In fact, it would be that way if it were left to anybody else in my family except for my Mother.

As it is, this dream is crushed as I make my way through Kings Cross Station in Britain with my little brother, Sam, trying to find Platform 9¾. Obscure platform number? Yes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to exist.

This is exactly what I don't need right now; my first day at this new school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (I hope it's less uptight and official than it sounds), and we're going to miss the bloody train.

With a frustrated growl, I came to a halt and glared around the station. Sam seemed to notice my growing impatience and took charge of the situation. That was my Sammy; despite the small age difference, my little brother and I were incredibly close.

"Excuse me, sir?" Sam called to a passing man in uniform, and he turned around to look at us with a friendly smile. "Do you know where platform 9¾ is?"

His face immediately fell to a scowl. "Is that a joke?"

Sam glanced at me, frowning, saying "Um, no, I have my ticket right here…" and he began to dig in his pocket for it.

The man glared at Sam and snapped, "It doesn't exist, okay?"

He turned around then and began to stalk away from us, muttering as he went "Every year one of you snot nosed little brats asks me that stupid question…"

...What the fuck? I thought people in this country were meant to be hospitable.

Immediately, Sam looked up at me, confused. "Bree, what do we do…?"

This would be a lot easier if it wasn't just Sam and I left here to find our way around. I mean, we're in a completely foreign place, and to be honest it's really confusing trying to find my way around England. Unfortunately, my older brother, Toby, isn't coming to England for another three weeks while he sorts things out transferring his work at the Wizarding Hospital, and Dad is under so much stress trying to fix everything up at the Ministry. He works as an Auror and is working heavily overtime trying to catch up on his work after the move. Mom was a really good event planner and her name had already spread throughout town, so she was already too busy to see us off.

So here we are. Fun, fun, fun.

We stood in the middle of the Platform with our large trunks and my black cat, Felix, being shoved out of the way by people in a hurry, and being completely ignored by everyone around us.

Have you ever felt so invisible in a crowd of people that you doubted anyone would even so much as blink if you collapsed right then and there, dead? I hated that feeling. Sam didn't seem to mind too much, he's always been the more private of the two of us. But right now, I was starting to stress out, and Bree Montero doesn't stress… _ever._

I bit my lip and stared around the platform, trying to find anybody who stood out as a wizard against all these muggles… and that was when I saw someone run through a wall.

There was a whole family of red heads waiting together and in pairs, they took the wall between platforms 9 and 10 at a run and instead of colliding with the wall, they ran right on through.

Of course the platform's hidden. Stupid, Bree, how could you not have picked up on this?

By now the red headed family had all disappeared, so I guess it's time to try out my theory. Without saying anything, I took off at a run towards the brick wall and prayed that I wouldn't hit the damn wall too hard.

Thankfully, I didn't hit the wall, and when I stared up at the sign that read 'Platform 9¾' above me, I could help the small victory air punch I did. Within seconds, Sam had joined me, and he was breathing a lot heavier.

Sam needs to stop stressing so much; it's not good for his heart, the poor sucker.

We eventually found a place to put our trunks on the train, and I blew a kiss to Felix as I left my fat cat with the other animals. That was around the time I lost Sam, when he disappeared into a large group of people around his age (thirteen). I let him go then and wandered onto the train and into a compartment by myself, flopping down beside the window and watching parents hug their children goodbye for the year, wishing them well and some with children that looked like first years were even tearing up. This one woman had massive amounts of mascara running down her face and looked like she belonged in a horror movie, and I couldn't help but laugh a bit.

The compartment door suddenly slid open and a girl with tanned skin and dark brown hair looked at me in surprise. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you- we'll just find somewhere else-"

"No, its fine," I told her, smiling. "Come on in."

She gave me the most enthusiastic smile I think I've ever seen and opened the door all the way, wandering in and sitting across from me. A girl with light blonde hair and a boy with dark skin and dreadlocks followed her in, each smiling at me.

"I haven't seen you around before," the brunette girl stated, staring at my curiously. As she spoke, the train let off a high pitched whistle and we began to move.

I smiled at her. "I'm new this year, just moved from America. I'm Bree Montero."

She grinned back. She seemed to be the confident one of the group. "I'm Katie Bell. That's Lee Jordan and Alicia Spinnet."

"Are you from Walden Institution of Magic?" Alicia asked suddenly. She had a light, careful voice, and she seemed very shy.

"Yeah, I am," I answered, and she nodded, seeming impressed by me all of a sudden.

Lee extended his hand and leant across the aisle towards me. "Well, Breezy, it's an absolute pleasure to meet you!"

As I shook his hand, Katie rolled her eyes. "He's only saying that because of your boobs. Just a heads up."

I couldn't help but laugh as Lee shrugged apologetically, "Thanks for the warning."

"You'll be sharing a room with me this year," Alicia said, smiling at me shyly. "Dumbledore added it to my letter."

"No fair, I want the new kid!" Katie groaned out.

"So you're in Gryffindor then!" Lee said, seeming pleased.

"I don't actually know what that means…"

His grin fell. "Don't you know about the four houses?"

"Nobody told me about them, no." Nobody told me about anything, really.

Katie took charge once again. "Well, we have four houses here. Ravenclaw, for the intelligent; Hufflepuff, for the patient; Slytherin, for the ones that nobody likes nor cares about; and Gryffindor, for the brave, smart, devilishly handsome, all around perfect students."

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows. "So you're in Slytherin, then?"

She raised hers right back. "So your wish is to start at a new school with no friends, then?"

I couldn't help but laugh. I was really taking a liking to Katie Bell.

"Well, we do have houses at our school and they sound the same, but they have different names. I suppose I'm in Gryffindor over here then."

"Oh! Yay!" To show her enthusiasm, Katie clapped.

Throughout the long train ride, I got to know the three other occupants of the compartment. Alicia's such a sweetheart, very caring and true to my original prediction, she's a bit shy. Lee's hilarious and so overly sexual in everything he says and does. Katie's insane, there's no better way to put it. She's loud, she has the most enthusiastic laugh I've ever heard, and at one stage of the journey, she sang to me. I already adored all three of them.

All three of them were very interested in America and to be perfectly honest, I can't blame them. If I grew up in England, I'd want to hear about other places too. Even now it's raining even harder than I've seen it during my time so far in this country. Not only that, but it was starting to fog up more and more the further we got into the journey. I could barely see the ground below us when I looked outside the window.

It was creepy, like a scene out of one of those really corny horror movies James always forces me to watch with him when we're together.

Lee leant around Katie and stared out the window at the stormy sky. "Bit dark and gloomy out there. Bit scary. Mind, if any of you ladies is feeling a bit frightened my hands are here to hold and- OW! KATIE!"

Katie looked at him innocently, taking her hand away from where she had hit him in the arm. "Sorry, I was aiming to hold your hand and I missed. Clumsy me!"

Lee shot her a glare and Alicia spoke up quickly to diffuse the tension. "So what do you think is happening this year?"

"Um, school, war with the Slytherins, quidditch… the usual, I'm assuming." Katie replied, shrugging.

Alicia shook her head. "No, haven't you heard? Something's happening at the school this year. Something big."

Lee nodded along. "Yeah, I heard someone talking about it at the Quidditch World Cup. It has something to do with some foreign wizards, I think."

"But you don't know what it is?" I asked, and they all shook their heads, shrugging. Hm.

For the rest of the train ride we all talked about anything that came to mind, and I was starting to think that Hogwarts wasn't actually going to be such a bad place. I already fit in well with these people.

We changed into our robes and immediately after the train began to slow down. Katie scowled as she stared out of the window and muttered, "My hair's gonna go all frizzy in this stupid rain…"

"You look super sexy even with frizzy hair, Bell, trust me!" Lee told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her down the corridor with him.

The four of us stood in the doorway for a moment staring out into what was quickly turning into a gale. Sighing, I grabbed the hood from the back of my robes and pulled it over my head, shielding my long blonde hair from sight. The other three did the same and then we took off at a run, heads bowed away from the rain, out onto the train platform.

I'll probably never get used to this English weather.

I had grabbed onto Katie's sleeve so I didn't lose sight of her and end up completely lost in this downpour. Despite the hood covering my head, I knew it was pointless. Seconds out in the rain and I was absolutely soaking wet.

Following Katie up the road, I eventually looked up when she stopped running. There was a large black carriage in front of us, pulled by magic. Much to Alicia's displeasure, Katie pushed a few second years out of the way of a carriage and dived into it, with Lee, Alicia and I following after her.

"Katie, you can't do that! That's so irresponsible!" Alicia scolded, but Katie was too busy moaning about her soaking wet hair to listen to her.

The carriage began to move as soon as we closed the door. I leant against the window to get my first view of Hogwarts. It was a vague outline through the rain but it looked huge, and I must say I was impressed by it.

Letting out a relieved sigh as we entered the school, I immediately threw my hood down and looked up at the school, grinning and glad to be out of the rain. However, that was when I was hit in the face by a water bomb.

Once again, my view of Hogwarts got more negative.

"PEEVES!" Katie screeched. "NOT COOL!"

A little blue man was floating above us, cackling with a basket full of water bombs. In response, he threw another water bomb down at Katie. She struggled to get out of the way, slipped in a puddle of water from the first lot of bombs, grabbed onto Lee's shoulder to try and stay upright, and ended up pulling him down into a heap on the floor with her.

I could help but laugh at the situation, until Lee glared up at me, reached out, and pulled me down onto the soaking wet floor too.

Alicia had already made a break for a large hall where everyone seemed to be congregating, and the three of us on the ground, soaking wet and spluttering, stumbled our way after her.

When we reached the dry room, we immediately stood up straight again. They seemed to have led me into the Great Hall. There were four long tables which I assumed belonged to each of the four houses, and a table at the front for the teachers. There were hundreds of candles floating in the air above us and as I looked up at the sky, I saw that it was reflecting the storm outside. It would've been beautiful on a fine night.

From beside me, Lee shook his dreadlocks out like a dog, hitting everybody close by him, and making Katie laugh loudly at him.

We were some of the last to enter the Hall apparently, because it was already very full. Katie and Lee strode off to the far side of the Hall and I followed behind them, not really knowing what else to do, and we sat down somewhere near the end of the table. I saw Sam a few seats down from me with a black haired boy with glasses, a redhead, and a girl with bushy brown hair. I grinned at him and waved, and he waved back.

Alicia had spotted some of their friends further down the table; two identical redheaded boys and a beautiful girl with dark skin and darker hair. She smiled over at them.

"So now what do we do?" I asked Katie.

"We wait for McGonagall to bring in the first years for the sorting. They get here by boat across the Black Lake." Katie answered. Hm, what a charming and friendly name for a lake that first years have to cross.

"I wouldn't much fancy doing that in this weather!" Lee said. "Man, I'm starving. They better hurry up."

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Katie cried, turning to me. She put on a professional voice, a bit like a tour guide, and started speaking again. "This, my dear Bree, is our Great Hall. We gather here for all meals of the day. This is the Gryffindor table, so you can only sit here. Then there's Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuff, and then there's finally Slytherin. We all have House Ghosts. Ours is Nearly Headless Nick. He's the one whose head is constantly hanging off his neck, and if you need anything and you see him, feel free to ask."

"He's a nice enough bloke, but the Nearly Headless thing puts off most people," Lee added.

"Yeah, it's a shame, really."

Well, that's new. We don't have any Nearly Headless ghosts. I wonder what happened with this guy's death. Be an interesting story to tell at parties.

The doors of the Great Hall opened then, and Professor McGonagall strode in. I knew her because she'd come to my house over the summer to kind of welcome me to England and give me everything for my time at Hogwarts. She was very serious but I liked her. She seemed to genuinely care about us.

Behind her strode the first years, and I felt sorry for them. Compared to these kids, I was barely even wet at all. They walked up to the front of the room behind Professor McGonagall, shaking with a mixture of nerves and the cold. One boy was draped in something huge and dark brown. He was very tiny and when he reached the front, he turned around and scanned our table. He seemed to find someone he knew and mouthed "I fell in the lake" with a thumbs up. He seemed delighted.

Lee snorted from beside me, shaking his head. "There's always one little weirdo."

In front of them now was a very old, patched hat. He appeared to be the Hogwarts sorting hat, and for a moment, we all just stared at it. Then, it opened it's mouth and began to sing.

"_A thousand years ago or more ago,_

_When I was newly sewn,_

_There lived four wizards of renown,_

_Whose names are still well known:_

_Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,_

_Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,_

_Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,_

_Shrewd Slytherin, from fen._

_They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,_

_They hatched a daring plan_

_To educate young sorcerers_

_Thus Hogwarts School began._

_Now each of these four founders_

_Formed their own house, for each_

_Did value different virtues_

_In the ones they had to teach._

_By Gryffindor, the bravest were_

_Prized far beyond the rest;_

_For Ravenclaw, the cleverest_

_Would always be the best;_

_For Hufflepuff, hard workers were_

_Most worthy of admission;_

_And power hungry Slytherin_

_Loved those of great ambition._

_While still alive they did divide_

_Their favorites from the throng,_

_Yet how to pick the worthy ones_

_When they were dead and gone?_

'_Twas Gryffindor who found the way,_

_He whipped me off his head_

_The founders put some brains in me_

_So I could choose instead!_

_Now slip me snug about your ears,_

_I've never yet been wrong,_

_Ill have a look inside your mind_

_And tell where you belong!"_

The hat fell silent again and the room rang with applause.

"The hat's song is always one of my favorite things about the New Year," Alicia said thoughtfully. Lee sniggered and muttered something to Katie about how his favorite part of the year was when somebody named Neville did something ridiculous.

The sorting went horrible slowly because by this stage I was starving. The two redheaded boys I had seen down the row before made it a bit more interesting, hissing at every Slytherin who was sorted.

Finally, the sorting ended, and I waited impatiently as the Headmaster stood up. "I have only two words for you. Tuck in."

Immediately, the golden plates around us filled with food and the goblets filled with drinks. I was impressed. The food at Walden was always fantastic, but this stuff looked mouthwatering. I immediately grabbed huge spoonfuls of whatever was closest to me and began to eat.

A few minutes in and my hunger had disappeared somewhat, so I slowed my eating. It was also because I realized that because I don't know these people that well, they wouldn't be accustomed to how much of a stomach for good food I really had. Turning to my three new friends, I said "Well, update me with the teachers, would you?"

Katie and Lee scanned the table. "That's Professor Dumbledore right in the middle, he's the Headmaster." Katie told me, and I nodded. Dumbledore seemed to have sensed his name being said and looked over at us, winking, before his eyes kept scanning the hall over his half moon spectacles.

He looked so old and wise, and damn was that an impressive beard.

They started explaining all the teachers, pointing at them as they went across the table.

"The small one is Professor Flitwick. He's the charms teacher and takes the choir. He's absolutely lovely, genuinely cares about your studies, you know? He's Head of Ravenclaw House." Katie told me.

Lee joined in next. "Then there's Professor Sprout, she's the Herbology teacher, obviously, by all the dirt on her. She's also Head of Hufflepuff House. Nice enough lady, but cares more about you giving her plants indigestion than she cares about the plants eating you, so watch out for that."

"She also probably could have bothered to clean off the dirt for dinner, but whatever," Katie said, shrugging. "Professor Sinistra is next to her; she's the head of Astronomy. Don't mess with her; she's scary enough to make you regret it. And don't bitch at the stars; she doesn't think it's as funny as we do."

They both paused slightly, sighing in unison. "And then… there's Professor Snape."

"Greasy haired bloody git," Lee snarled.

I was confused. "What's wrong with him?"

Lee scoffed. "Apart from everything?"

Alicia chimed in now. "He isn't actually a horrible man."

"How can you say that?" Katie demanded. "He is the _devil_!"

"He's the Potions Professor and he's Head of Slytherin House. Now, as if we needed any more reason to hate him, he's horrible to everybody not in Slytherin. He get's enjoyment out of taunting students and making them fail his classes." Lee said.

Alicia scoffed. "Lee, it isn't the Professor's fault that you're failing potions."

"Yes it is!" Lee snapped at her. "He's a horrible human being in every single way and that's all you need to know about him."

"Don't do anything to piss him off. Don't mess up in class, don't back chat, don't even look at him funny. Okay?" Katie warned. "He's scary."

Oh. Potions is my worst class. So, I'm already not going to get along too well with the mean teacher. Great. Really great.

"Then there's McGonagall. She's strict, but everybody likes her. She's Head of Gryffindor House." Lee continued on down the line. He was about to continue when Professor Dumbledore stood up and everybody immediately fell silent.

"So! Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention while I give out a few notices."

Dumbledore started off by saying something about the caretaker, and Lee immediately grabbed my attention by groaning. "We forgot about Filch! Right, seediest bloke I've ever met. He's the caretaker, and I swear to Merlin he has some weird sexual tension going on with his cat…"

Katie snorted. "And he hates you."

Lee turned away, nodding. "That too."

I turned my attention back to Dumbledore. "…also my painful duty to inform you all that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Katie, Lee and Alicia all suddenly looked absolutely horrified. Damn, that's harsh.

"This will be due to an event that will be starting in October and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teacher's time and energy- but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"

There was a deafening rumble of thunder, and the doors of the Great Hall flew open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning on a long staff and covered by a long black travelling cloak. Every person turned as one to look at the man, and he was suddenly illuminated by a bright flash of lightning. He lowered his hood, shook out his dark hair, and began to make his way to the teachers table, a dull clunk echoing around the Hall on his every other step. With every clunk, Alicia seemed to wince.

Merlin, what an entrance. I should've done something like that. Nobody's going to forget that in a hurry.

The man reached Dumbledore and there was another flash of lightning. Oooh, not pretty! Every inch of skin on his face seemed to be scarred, and a large chunk of his nose was missing. He also had a large, circular mechanical eye, vivid blue, and as his other green eye stared at Dumbledore, the blue one spun around without stopping.

Alicia looked terrified of the newcomer. He shook the headmasters hand and then went and sat down at the staff table, pulling a plate of sausages immediately towards him and digging in with enthusiasm.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore said into the silence, "Professor Moody."

"He's so creepy…" Katie breathed.

Dumbledore cleared his throat again. "As I was saying, Hogwarts is to have the honor of hosting a legendary event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my great pleasure to inform you all that this year, Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament."

I gasped, as did several other people. A voice from down the row gasped out "You're joking!"

Nearly everyone laughed, including Professor Dumbledore.

"No, I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar-"

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly, and the headmaster broke off. I had to say, I really liked Dumbledore already. There were noticeable differences about Walden and Hogwarts; Walden was a lot more modern, whereas Hogwarts seemed to not have changed in the slightest since it was discovered. The teachers at Walden were, for lack of a better term, pretty cool people. A lot of them were young and they taught us well because we all felt like friends… All except for our Headmaster; Professor Zira. I mean, I try and see the best in everyone, but there's no other way to put it; Zira is a total bitch. I actually think Dumbledore would've fit in better at Walden, if I'm honest.

"The Triwizard Tournament!" Lee murmured to us as the headmaster briefly explained what the Tournament was… as if anyone wouldn't know. He seemed to be in awe.

"But didn't they stop the Tournament because of the large number of entrants that end up dead…?" Alicia asked disapprovingly.

I didn't hear Lee's reply because one of Dumbledore's sentences stood out to me.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons, Dumstrang and Walden will be arriving shortly with their short-listed contenders in October-" I just about stopped breathing at this statement, and hand flying up to cover my mouth as Katie looked at me in concern, "-and from each school a single student is selected to compete. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete…" Dumbledore paused for a moment, before continuing, "_Eternal glory._ That is what awaits the student who wins the Triwizard Tournament. But to do that the student must face three tasks… Three _extremely_ dangerous tasks. Let me be very clear now: these contests are not for the faint hearted. If chosen you stand alone. Now, eager though I know some of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the Heads of participating schools along with the Ministry of Magic have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year, Only students who are of age- that is to say, seventeen years or older- will be allowed to put their names down for consideration..." Nobody seemed to like this very much. Can't say I was too fond of the idea either, but what can you do? Walden's coming here, so nothing else really matters to me at this point. "We find this measure necessary given that the tournament tasks will be very difficult and it is very unlikely that a student under their sixth or seventh year would be able to cope with them. I will personally be-" I didn't hear the rest of Dumbledore's sentence because I was too busy trying not to laugh at the look of utter fury on Lee's face as he muttered "I'm getting into that Tournament, I don't care what it fucking takes!"

Dumbledore told us that Beauxbatons, Dumstrang and Walden would be arriving in October and remaining with us for most of the year, and then he dismissed us. I stuck close to Katie so I wouldn't get lost, but she seemed to be in too unhappy a mood to notice much.

"Eternal glory!" Lee said in admiration. "I deserve eternal glory!"

"I'll be seventeen soon enough, I deserve a shot," Katie sulked, frowning.

I was excited, and I couldn't hide it. Walden was coming here! I'd been dreading the transition here for weeks; now I didn't need to.

Katie, Lee and Alicia led me through the school, and I was already confused with it. It was huge and dark, with creepy moving suits of armor and dark shadows everywhere I looked. Plus, the staircases actually moved, and I wasn't going to get used to that too quickly. I was going to get lost so much in this school…

Eventually we reached the seventh floor and a huge portrait of a very large lady, in a large ugly pink dress and staring at a glass she was twirling between her hands.

They led me into the common room and I couldn't help but smile. Everything was red and cold, with comfy looking couches around a fireplace in one corner, bookcases everywhere, tables, chess sets, and large windows along one wall with a brilliant view of the outside. It was homey, and so much more lovely than the rest of the castle. I loved it.

Alicia shook her head at Lee and Katie as they flopped down onto the couches, still complaining about not being allowed in the tournament, and motioned up the staircase.

"You're sharing with me; I'll show you." She said, but Katie let out a loud wail and reached out to grab my arm and crying out "I'LL MISS YOU!"

Laughing, I followed the blonde up one of the staircases and into a room. There were five four poster beds around the room, with a door leading to a small bathroom on one side, and our trunks already at the food of each bed.

Hogwarts was old fashioned, dark, and gloomy (and it was in England so that automatically made it worse), but as Alicia smiled at me sweetly and told me that if I needed anything, she was two beds over from me, and I lay down to bed that night with the knowledge that in October, some of my friends were bound to be here with me… I thought that maybe Hogwarts wasn't going to be as horrible as I originally thought.


	2. Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts

I didn't sleep amazingly well last night. My new bed was glorious; warm and squishy, but I just couldn't sleep. Maybe it's because in six years of schooling, I've never actually gone to bed on time on the first night of term. Callie and Georgia would keep me up for most of the night talking about our summers.

Eventually I managed to drag myself out of bed. I didn't have the luxury of Callie being my own personal alarm clock here, so I'd slept in, and I appeared to be the last one in the room. Damn, I just know I'll get lost on the way to breakfast, this school is _ridiculously_ confusing. Every corridor looks the exact same as the one before it!

I didn't have any clue what time it was, so I jumped in the shower and dressed in the bathroom extra quickly, just in case. I don't really want to make a bad impression on my teachers today.

The Hogwarts school uniform was very… well, gray. That's really all I could say for it. Gray skirt, gray socks, gray jumper. All very ugly and bland. I had my dash of red in the tie, but I decided to chuck in pair of red earrings too, just to brighten it up a bit more. I look ridiculous in such a formal uniform, and I laughed slightly when I looked at myself in the mirror.

When I opened the door and walked back into the dormitory room, I saw a dark skinned girl pulling her black hair into a pony tail while a pretty brunette girl held up a mirror in front of her face.

"So, she said to me, 'Tor, I think you need to back off a bit!' and I was like-" the brunette girl broke off midway and smiled at me when she saw me.

The dark skinned girl turned around to look at me and a wide grin broke out on her face.

"I was wondering when I'd get to meet you! You're the exchange student, aren't you?" she said, dropping her hair and coming forwards, extending her hand for me to shake. "I'm Angelina Johnson."

"I'm Bree Montero," I introduced myself, shaking Angelina's hand. The brunette girl behind her came forwards too. The first thing I noticed was her professional looking eye makeup. I wish I could do that.

"I'm Victoria Callait," she said, giving me a small wave. "It's so exciting to meet you, I've been looking forward to this since Katie told everyone about you!"

Um, what.

Angelina saw the look on my face and laughed. "Oh, no, nothing bad. Katie's a little overenthusiastic sometimes. Come on, we can talk on the way to breakfast."

Thank Merlin for Angelina Johnson to lead me through this crazy school.

"So how do you like England?" Victoria asked me on our way out of the room and down to breakfast.

"Oh, it's very nice…" I lied. It's wet and I hate it.

Victoria laughed. "Don't lie, I bet this sucks compared to Los Angeles. I went there with my Mum last year, it's absolutely lovely."

Shooting her a smile, I shrugged. "I guess it's a bit of a change but you know, I'm trying."

"Well no need for trying, Hogwarts will feel like home soon enough. I'll take you under my wing; everything will be fine," Angelina said, winking at me.

Breakfast was lovely. Katie ran to me when she saw me, jumping onto me and hugging me enthusiastically, proclaiming how much she had missed me. I met Victoria's best friend and our other room mate, Ruby, so breakfast was full of croissants and other fancy things, along with some girly chit chat. However, it seemed that all anybody was really thinking about was the Triwizard Tournament, and it came up in conversation once again.

Slowly, the Great Hall emptied as people headed off to first period. Katie's in her fifth year this year, and she bid me good luck before she left as she saw Professor McGonagall begin to come down the table, handing out timetables to the sixth and seventh years.

"This year is going to be perfect, you know," Angelina said. "No more potions. No more Severus Snape. And we get to watch the Triwizard Tournament!"

"Isn't it, like, dangerous?" Ruby questioned, her eyes wide. "I read in a book that people, like, die within the first round."

"That's a lie," Angelina shot at her quickly, "The closest thing you've read to a book recently is a fat ass copy of Wicked Witch Fashion magazine."

Ruby pouted. "They're pretty damn thick, you know."

Victoria giggled slightly. "We heard Fred and George talking about it last night. They're trying to find a way to enter. You should enter, Angie, you're old enough!"

Angelina nodded. "I was actually thinking of doing it. It would be rewarding, and the fat pot of gold I'd win wouldn't be a bad treat. Too bad they had to cancel Quidditch for it."

"Yeah, you're really into that, aren't you?" Ruby asked, grinning at her knowledge.

Angelina raised her eyebrows. "Well, I have been on the team for four years..."

"Er… you're on the Quidditch team, Angelina?" I asked quickly. Already I could tell that Ruby was not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Angelina turned to me. "Yeah, it's great! You should try out when it starts again next year!"

Oh. Um, how do I say this gracefully? "Well, no. I'm not good at things like that. I'm not exactly the most coordinated person on the planet. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm just too overenthusiastic sometimes and I… you know… fall over."

God, that was an understatement. And not to mention brooms absolutely terrify me, I had a bad experience with a rogue one in my first year and, well… I don't like to think about flying too much.

Angelina pursed her lips to stop from laughing out loud.

Professor McGonagall had reached us now. She looked to me first.

"Ah, Miss Montero, good to see you again," McGonagall said. "How are you enjoying Hogwarts so far?"

"I like it!" Lie. "Everyone's very kind." Reasonably true.

"Good, good…" McGonagall nodded, before glancing down at a sheet of paper in her hands. "Your O.W.L. scores were all very good. You can continue with Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Herbology, Potions, Divination… and I see that you'll be joining my Transfiguration class this year. Very good, I look forward to having you."

She won't be saying that when she finds out how much of a slackass I am in classes. I couldn't find any reason to deny my new schedule, so I nodded politely. She waved her wand and then handed me my new timetable.

Slightly impatiently, I waited for the others to get their timetables sorted. I'd be lost in a second if left alone to wander.

I've never been the best student. At Walden, the Professors more treated you like friends, and that was a method I could learn with. I don't pay much attention to formal teaching and I tended to distract the people around me. Don't get me wrong, I pass the exams well enough... Mostly because of my friend Ben tutoring me for every one. Potions was my worst subject, and from what I've heard about Professor Snape, without Ben around, I'm dead.

…Ugh, being the new kid sucks.

Soon enough, Angelina and Alicia had their timetables sorted. I had Potions class first with Alicia, and as I turned to say goodbye to Angelina, she gathered me up in a hug.

Being naturally affectionate, I immediately hugged back the dark haired girl enthusiastically. She pulled away and held my shoulders, shaking her head, before saying "It was nice knowing you, Bree, for however short a time."

As I laughed loudly, Alicia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms childishly. "Snape isn't even _that_ bad."

Angelina looked horrified at her statement.

The dungeons were dark, gloomy and creepy (even more so than the rest of the school, as if I thought that had been possible) and the potions classroom was just plain scary. There were dozens of slimy looking things and darkly colored liquids inside dozens of jars lining the walls. Alicia led me to a table at the front, and moment later Victoria joined us. Almost as soon as she was seated, Professor Snape strode into the room, his black robes billowing out behind him (it was a very dramatic effect, I wont lie).

There was no need for the "Silence" that he hissed out. As soon as he entered, everyone had gone silent and still. What a creeper.

He made his way slowly to the front of the classroom, his pitch black cloak and hair making him somewhat blend into the shadows. No wonder he had his classes down in the dungeons, I was already a bit terrified of him.

Turning slowly, he shot us all a frown. "I have not told you to take out your books. I wish to speak to you, and I want your full attention."

Hesitantly, we all slid our books back down into our bags.

"Though I congratulate you on your Outstanding in your O.W.L. examinations, I must issue a warning. The N.E.W.T. level potions course is long, difficult and busy. I've had the pleasure" his words were just dripping with sarcasm now "of teaching you all before and I have no doubt that some of you may not be able to keep up with the work load. The potions you shall be studying this year are more complex, and you will struggle. I will not tolerate foolishness in this classroom, and anybody thought to be wasting my time will promptly be punished."

He took a moment to stare around the room, as though checking to make sure we all understood.

"For your first lesson, to give you a taste of how the rest of the year will progress, you will be brewing a potion called the Draught of Living Death. Turn to page ten of Advanced Potion Making for the instructions. You have just over an hour. Begin."

There was a flurry of movement as everybody took out their books and began moving to what I assumed to be the storage cupboard. Victoria sighed from next to me. "Trust the old git to assign something this difficult. We've never done anything even close to this before!" She continued flipping pages in the book before reaching the right one and turning to me, smiling apologetically. "We probably should have warned you beforehand about Snape. He's a tad intense."

I grinned at her as we stood up and moved towards the storage cupboard. "Don't worry, Katie and Lee covered it. I wasn't expecting this though. I don't think 'a tad' even really sums him up. He hasn't smiled once since I first saw him."

Victoria took the ingredients I extracted from my hands to make the job easier, and soon enough we were on our way back to our table. "Bree, I don't think I've seen Snape smile once since my first year here. I'm not sure he even knows how to smile."

"Well, I know what my goal is for the year then. I'm going to make Severus Snape smile."

Overhearing our conversation, Alicia's head shot up. "Oh, Bree, no!"

Victoria was grinning. "I wish you well, my padawan."

The Star Wars reference winded me for a moment, bringing back memories of my friend Ben again. He'd always been a huge nerd and loved everything about Star Wars. I frowned slightly, but Alicia shook my arm to get my attention again. I noticed how ridiculously gentle Alicia was when she touched me, and I noticed that she was like that with everything she did.

"You'll end up in detention so regularly, Bree! He won't find it amusing at all!"

Victoria stared at me and said very seriously, "He might_ actually_ kill you."

Just as Victoria had said, the Draught of Living Death was the most difficult potion I had ever attempted to make, and it was just a generally annoying potion to attempt, if I'm perfectly honest.

"A light silver vapor should now be rising from your cauldron," Snape called in a bored tone of voice when there were ten minutes left of the class, not even bothering to look up from whatever he was writing at his desk.

Aw, hell. My potion was a murky grey color with purple bubbles. I don't even know what I did wrong! Victoria's was perfect, and she glanced over at my cauldron with a smug smile I didn't really like.

"I CANT DO THIS IN AN HOUR, FOR FUCKS SAKES THIS POTION WILL TAKE THE REST OF MY LIFE," I cried angrily. Unluckily, half the class seemed to overhear me and sniggered at my misfortune. Hogwarts sucks.

Well, needless to say, at the end of the lesson, Snape wasn't too pleased with me. He stared down at it with his face devoid of all expression, before he looked up at me and raised his eyebrows. So much for making a good first impression.

"And what exactly is this supposed to be?" He drawled out.

"Um, I'm sorry sir, I tried my hardest, but to be honest I really don't know what I did wrong with this."

There was a small silence. "And you are Miss…?"

"Montero, sir," I supplied, and he nodded.

"The exchange student…?"

"You betcha sir!" I responded with an enthusiastic nod. I could almost actually feel Alicia's frown from where she sat beside me.

"Miss Montero," Snape began, scowling at me, "Perhaps Walden was more laidback, but please understand that in my class, mistakes will not be taken lightly."

"I'm sorry, sir. I wasn't very good at potions at Walden, but hopefully under your teaching I may be able to improve!" I flashed him my most charming smile, but it only caused his scowl to deepen.

"Five points from Gryffindor," and then he moved along to another table. My face fell; nobody has ever been able to ignore my charms! What an absolute prick.

From beside me, Victoria tried to stifle her giggles inside her potions book.

The bell rang soon after and he dismissed us, setting us homework to study up on the Draught of Living Death. On my way out of the classroom, I was slowed down by two very tall ginger haired boys flanking either side of me.

"Well, hello new girl!" One of them started.

"That was quite a solid effort in there,"

"You've gained our respect already."

Before the other twin could continue, I grinned and said, "Well, you know that was my main goal to achieve when I started at Hogwarts, so thank Merlin it was that easy!"

They grinned identically down at me and stopped my walking by one of them wrapping an arm around my shoulder and turned me around to face them.

"I'm Fred,"

"I'm George,"

I grinned and looked at them closely for the first time. They were ridiculously tall, I'm talking over 6 ft, which was more noticeable by how ridiculously short I am, around 5ft. Completely identical, but I somehow immediately placed both names to the particular boy and knew I'd never get it wrong.

"I'm Bree," I said, "It's lovely to meet you."

"It's a good thing Snape mentioned you were an exchange student, we spent half the lesson trying to figure out why we'd never seen you before," Fred seemed to only be half joking. These people don't seem to get a lot of exchange students.

"And obviously, you're hard to miss," George added, bringing a hand up to flick one of my dangling red earrings.

"Your uniform is so _grey_; I had to do something to brighten it up a little!" I told them. I liked these boys already.

Suddenly, I lost my vision when two hands were brought down on my eyes from behind. "Guess who!" I heard a boy yell enthusiastically. "He's funny, gorgeous, talented, amazing… and he's gonna get real angry if you get this wrong."

"Is that you, Dumbledore?" I cried, spinning around to see Lee standing in front of me, struggling to hide his amusement.

"You think that Dumbledore's gorgeous?" He asked, sniggering.

Gripping my books tighter, I gave a fake sigh. "What can I say? It's the _beard_."

The people around me laughed, and Fred draped an arm across my shoulders. "Oh, you're going to be fun. What class do you have now?"

Struggling for a moment, I took out my timetable from between the sheets of my Potions textbook. "Defense Against the Dark Arts… care to show me to the classroom?" I asked, because from a glance around I realized that Victoria and Alicia had left without me.

"It would probably be more fun to watch you struggle your way through the school, but we're already heading up there," George said, coming forwards to walk on the other side of me.

"How long has Moody been your teacher for? Is he any good?" How much can I get away with, was what I really wanted to know.

"Oh, Merlin, no. You see, the Defense teaching job is cursed," Lee told me.

"Cursed?" I repeated, doubtful.

"_Cursed_!" Fred wailed in what he must've thought was a spooky voice, waving his arms around like a fool.

"No teacher has been able to last in that job for more than a year. It's cursed," Lee stated simply.

"…Then why do people still take the job?" I wondered aloud. None of them seem to have a real answer for that question.

We arrived at the classroom soon after, and it was mostly already full and silent when we entered. I have to say, it was one of the creepiest classrooms I've ever been in. It was very dark and there seemed to be a lot of dark artifacts set up around the room.

Well, that was no real surprise. I didn't think Professor Moody would be much of a baby blue and bunny's sort of guy.

I flunked down in the empty seat next to Angelina, who smiled at me broadly. Her smile turned to a bit of a frown when the door banged open not a second after I plunked my butt down in the chair and Professor Moody limped his way into the room.

Nobody spoke as he made his way slowly to the front of the room, and once he turned he glared at all of us, his magic eye swiveling around to glare at one of us randomly. When it hit me, I had to refrain myself from actually shivering.

"You can put those away," Moody growled, stomping over to his desk. "Those books. You won't need them."

Alicia looked horrified. What's with these teachers and no books in the classes? I'm going to need that shit to study, you know. I don't have Ben to copy all my work off.

"Right," he said, staring us down again. "I have a letter from Professor Lupin detailing what you covered last year, and I see he gave you enough to get through the O.W.L's. But you're in your senior years now, and frankly I think you're old enough now to know what's really out there. You're old enough to know what you're up against and how to defend yourself against the Dark Arts."

The class was hanging on his every word. This man… I knew nothing about him, but I know I would probably really enjoy his classes. He seems to genuinely know what he's talking about, and by his appearance you could guess he's taken on some dark magic in his time.

"So, straight to it," He said, clapping his gnarled hands together with a sick grin, "Curses. They come in many shapes and forms, and I think sixteen is old enough to see them first hand, and what they do. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen before? A wizard whose about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to pause and tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it all nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be watchful. CONSTANT VIGILENCE!" He suddenly yelled, and more than half of us jumped a bit at his sudden outburst.

"So," he continued, "do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizard law?"

A few hands tentatively raised into the air. I knew one, but I wasn't willing to say it and have him start yelling things at me randomly. He pointed to a curly haired girl in the front row I didn't know yet, and she stuttered out "um, the I-imperius curse…"

Moody nodded grimly, "Ah yes, the Imperius curse… gave the Ministry quite a bit of trouble for a while there…"

He limped over to his desk, opened one of the drawers and took out a glass jar. When I looked closer, I saw that there was a huge spider in it and I immediately winced a bit. I hate spiders. He waved his wand and the spider floated out of the jar and into the palm of his hand. _"Imperio."_

The spider immediately leapt out of his hand and down onto the desk, rearing up and doing a few cartwheels across the desk as Moody moved his hand to control where it went. After a few more complicated gymnastics moves, the spider reared up on its hind legs and did a complicated dance. I couldn't help but giggle at the spider, and so was most of the class. Moody shot us a glare.

"Funny, is it?" He asked. "Would it still be funny if I did it to you?"

That effectively killed the humor, and we all went quiet pretty quickly after that.

"Total control," Moody murmured, staring at the spider as he made it roll around the desk. "I could make it do anything. Jump out the window, drown itself… Kill somebody… Years back, after the fall of the Dark Lord, there were loads of witches and wizards claiming to the Ministry that they only did the Dark Lord's bidding under the influence of the Imperius curse… It was a hard time sorting out the liars. Later on in the year, before we start non-verbal spells, I'll be teaching you how to fight off the Imperius curse. Not everyone's got it in them, so it's probably best to avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILENCE!"

I jumped again. That will never _not_ be unexpected.

"Anyone else, now? Another curse?" Again a few hands rose, and he pointed to a boy right down the back who I recognized to be a Slytherin from his green collar .

"The Cruciatus Curse," the boy said confidently.

Moody grunted and stared down at the spider, pointing his wand at it again. It seemed too scared to run out of his palm. _"Crucio!"_

The spiders legs bent into its body and it began to roll and thrash around on his palm. It made no noise, but it was in obvious pain. It kept shuddering and jerking and more and more people were beginning to look away from the spider, until it seemed like Moody was almost enjoying it, when he stopped.

There was a pause. "Pain. Unimaginable pain. That curse was very popular there, for a while… any others?"

We all knew the answer, but only very few people raised their hands.

Moody pointed to Alicia, who had her hands raised. "The Killing Curse," she murmured.

Moody nodded and put the spider down on the desk. As though it sensed what was coming, it scuttled away over the desk, trying to evade him. _"Avada Kedavra,"_ Moody said harshly, and with a bright flash of green light, the spider fell dead on the table. A few people stifled gasps.

"The last and worst. Not very pretty… And there's no counter curse. Only one person has ever been known to survive it… And he's a fourteen year old boy somewhere in the school."

WAIT. HARRY POTTER GOES TO THIS SCHOOL? THAT IS SO COOL!

"Avada Kedavra is a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it. You could all get your wands out right now and say the words, but I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter, I'm not here to teach you how to use the curse. But if there's no counter-curse, why am I showing you this? Because you've got to be prepared! You've got to know what the worst is, in case you come up against it." Moody was a very blunt man; he didn't sugar coat anything. "The three curses are the Unforgiveable curses. Named so because they are unforgiveable-" shocker "-and the use of any one of them will get you a one way ticket to Azkaban. That's what your up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need to be prepared. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills, copy this down…"

The rest of the lesson went by quickly, copying down everything there was to know about the three Unforgiveable curses. Nobody spoke, and when the bell rang everyone filed out quickly.

I exited with Fred and George, and Angelina quickly caught up, wrapping her arm around Fred from behind enthusiastically before walking next to us.

"I've never had a lesson like that," Fred said in amazement.

George nodded. "He's really seen it all, you know? He's been out there _doing it_!"

"I think he's off his rocker, to be honest," I piped up.

"Well that's obvious," Fred said dismissively. "But it was bloody awesome."

Hogwarts is weird.

It was lunchtime, so we made our way down to the Great Hall. However, when we hit the Entrance Hall, there seemed to be a commotion, because a large group of people were just standing around. A blonde haired, grey eyed boy from Slytherin was waving what looked like the newspaper and taunting a red headed boy who looked a bit similar to the ones standing next to me. I saw Sammy standing with the boy, but he looked really mad, as did the bushy haired girl and the dark haired boy standing next to him.

As we got closer, Sam and the people he was with turned to walk into the Entrance Hall and the blonde boy drew his wand on them. Fred and George made a move for theirs, but it was unnecessary, because at that moment, Moody acknowledged himself from behind us by yelling loudly "OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"

There was a loud bang and the white haired boy disappeared, and a second later a pure white ferret was in his place. Moody began waving his wand up and down, limping closer to the ferret, and the animal followed the path of his wand, up and down and up and down. By now, Moody was yelling again, but I could barely hear him over the people around me trying to stifle their laughter.

"Oh, that poor boy," I said, frowning, but nobody heard me over Fred and George's raucous laughter. Moody kept moving the ferret up and down, until from behind us, Professor McGonagall came running past.

"Professor Moody!" She cried loudly. "What do you think you are doing?"

We made our way closer to listen, just in time to hear Moody's response of "Teaching."

"Teaching? Is that a student?" McGonagall cried, shocked.

"Yep." George was actually leaning on Fred now, he was laughing so hard.

"No!" Professor McGonagall shrieked, and pointed her wand down at the ferret, which immediately grew back into being a boy again. His sleek blonde hair was a mess, and he winced as he got to his feet, taking a step away from Moody quickly. "We never use transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Professor Dumbledore mentioned that!"

Moody looked a bit like a scolded child. "He might've mentioned it."

The crowd began to disperse, and Fred and George were trying to wipe the tears of mirth from their eyes by now. I shot a last look at the blonde boy, who looked humiliated, and I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for him.

...Hogwarts is _really_ weird.


	3. Mad Eye Moody is a Psycho

I'd learnt over my short time at Hogwarts that being on my own was not smart. Hogwarts was such a large, strange place, and without a tour guide, I got lost fairly easily. The school was filled with walls pretending to be doors, suits of armor that seemed to tilt their heads to watch as you passed, ghosts that enjoy throwing things at students and being all around nuisances (well, that was just Peeves), and I could swear that not just the staircases, but the corridors too were actually moving around. It might have been easier if the school wasn't so damn huge. It also would have helped if I learnt sooner not to trust the directions of the Slytherins.

Classes at Hogwarts didn't differ too much from Walden, so I didn't find it too hard to keep up. Potions and Herbology were my worst. Everything else was fine. Every teacher assigned us a mountain load of unnecessary work to do in our free periods. The only class that was completely different from how it was at Walden was Divination.

Professor Trelawney was the crazy old bat who took the class, and I despised her. She had big frizzy hair, huge glasses that magnified her eyes and reminded me of a big bug, and the tower where she took her classes was so strongly scented with incense, I wanted to pass out as soon as I entered the room. I think the main difference was that at Walden our teacher was an actual Seer. This scraggly bitch just liked to predict as much misfortune as possible.

I'd taken to sticking closely to my new group of friends: Angeline, Lee, Katie, Alicia, Fred, and George. I'd been getting regular letters from my Mom, Dad, a few of my friends, and from my older brother Toby. I'd met Sam's little group of friends (and let out a huge weight from my shoulders at the fact that he'd taken so well to the big change), and they were all very sweet. He'd gotten close to Fred and George's little brother Ron Weasley (absolutely hilarious, but he's going to get so lanky when he grows up a bit and you can already tell how awkwardly it will suit him), a bushy haired girl called Hermione Granger (Muggle-born, the most intelligent person I think I've ever met), and the one and only Harry Potter (I tried to act cool when I met him. I mean, this kid killed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. That's pretty damn badass. My mantra was a continuous sting of "don't be creepy" and it seemed to work. Either way, he was actually a really sweet kid).

So, I'd been at Hogwarts for a few weeks now, and the Triwizard Tournament was getting closer. And by that I mean Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Walden should be arriving any day now.

The teachers at Hogwarts were actually fantastic (apart from Trelawney). Snape hadn't smiled yet (bummer, but I'm still trying), McGonagall was fantastic, a very no-nonsense woman, Flitwick was just the sweetest man alive, Sprout was a wacko when it came to her precious Venomous Tentacular plant, and I'd met the groundskeeper/Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Hagrid, who looked to be half giant and was actually just about the sweetest human being alive. Fred and George had introduced me one day when we were meant to be studying down by the Lake. I nearly cracked my teeth on his cooking, but he was still a really lovely guy.

Moody was a bit of a problem.

True to his word (I thought he was kidding, but apparently not), he decided one class that it would be a fantastic idea to put the Imperius Curse on all of us in turn and to see if we could fight it off.

Angelina's eyes widened and Alicia's mouth dropped open. I knew he was a wacko.

"But- but- sir, didn't you say it was… um… illegal?" Alicia asked tentatively.

"Dumbledore wants you to be able to know how to fight it off. But if you'd prefer to learn when somebody is using it to the full extent to control you completely, you're excused from this lesson." Moody said coolly. Alicia didn't move.

This is _so_ not something Dumbledore would have been cool with.

Moody took one person forward and put the Imperius curse on them. One by one, my new classmates did the most extraordinary things under the curse. And one by one, nobody managed to fight off the spell. A Slytherin boy giggled madly and did gymnastics over the tables. A Gryffindor girl I had yet to meet slithered around the room in impersonation of a snake. Lee sang (or more like screamed) the national anthem at the top of his lungs, doing what looked like karate moves at anyone he came too close to. I had to admire Lee, he didn't even blush when the curse was taken off of him.

"Ladies, please, I know my voice is intoxicating, so just form an orderly line and I'll get to each of you in turn," Lee said, grinning, as he returned to us. Angelina yanked one of his dreadlocks.

"Montero, you're up!" Moody barked. Oh, shit.

I should've left when I had the chance.

Moody pointed his wand at me when I was in the centre of the room and said _"Imperio,"_ and suddenly, every negative thought about this class was gone, replaced by this wonderful weightless feeling.

_Walk forward._

Well, okay then mysterious voice. Might as well.

_Good. Now jump into the air._

That sounds like fun! Okay, I'm jumping.

_Keep doing it. Hop forward._

…Why? That's just silly.

_Hop forward._

Fuck you. I don't want to.

_HOP FORWARD NOW!_

The next thing I knew, I'd face planted right into the ground.

There was a bit of laughter from around the room, and the feeling of happiness was gone. Apparently, I'd started to hop but stopped myself mid way. Fantastic.

"Yes!" Moody roared, sounding enthused with my hitting my head on the ground. "She's done it! Miss Montero, you've done it! They'll have a hard time controlling you!"

The scattered laughter stopped, and when I sat up, people were looking at me in slight awe. I felt badass.

And then Moody decided to put the curse on me multiple more times until I completely managed to fight it off.

By the end of the lesson, I hadn't managed to fight off the curse completely (I hope that doesnt mean we'll pick up where we left off last time). Moody had tried to get me to do multiple different things, my favorite of which was to walk up the stairs leading to his office at the back of the room and jump off the railing. I ended up jumping backwards and just hitting the stairs again, but the fact he wanted me to drop from that height was a mark of his insanity.

Every part of my body ached after the lesson, and I hobbled out after my friends (none of whom had been put under the curse after Lee, because of me) muttering how much of a damn psycho he was.

"He talks like we're going to be attacked at any second," Lee said, shaking his head.

"Effective enough, I suppose," Alicia mused.

"_EFFECTIVE?_ THAT PSYCHO USED AN UNFORGIVABLE CURSE ON ME! MULTIPLE TIMES! THAT'S NOT EFFECTIVE TEACHING METHODS, THAT'S EFFECTIVE BEHAVIOUR TO GET YOU SENT TO AZKABAN! WHAT'S NEXT, IS HE GONNA PUT THE DAMN CRUCIATUS CURSE ON US NEXT, JUST FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES? I THINK I BROKE MY DAMN BACK FALLING OFF THAT RAILING! I COULD HAVE A CONCUSSION OR INTERNAL BLEEDING! I COULD-" Lee maneuvered his arms, so one was pulling me forward faster than my hobbling, and one was around my shoulder and covering my mouth. I didn't say much else on the way too lunch.

The only thing that in any way brightened my attitude was that night when we returned to the common room and found a new sign on the notice board.

_TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT_

_The delegations from Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Walden will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast._

* * *

><p>I thought that the fast approaching date of Walden's arrival would keep me cheerful for the rest of the week, but it also kept my new teachers on edge. The school seemed to be getting cleaner as the week wore on, which I enjoyed because it made the place less dark and gloomy, but it just seemed to irritate everyone else.<p>

Fred and George were getting more cheerful as the week wore on. They were determined to enter the Triwizard Tournament. The day before the other schools were set to arrive, I was sitting with Fred and George in a corner of the room, chatting away about their plans, when Sam, Harry, Hermione and Ron wandered over. I immediately pulled Sammy down into a hug that only a big sister can manage, ruffling his hair in the process, and he laughingly pushed my hands away, sitting down next to me.

"Have you got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?" Harry asked the twins. "Thought any more about trying to enter?"

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," George told them bitterly. "She just told me to get on with transfiguring my raccoon."

"Which we never did the homework for, by the way," I interjected, and the twins shrugged.

"I wonder what the tasks are gonna be," Sam said curiously.

"I bet we could do them!" Ron said confidently. "We've done dangerous stuff before!"

"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," Fred said flatly. "You may have done impressive things in the past but you've almost always ended up injured, little brother." I picked up on Fred's sarcasm, but was still curious.

"Wait, what kind of impressive things? You guys are fourth years…" I asked.

"Well, there was that time with the three headed dog, the Philosophers Stone, and You-Know-Who being on the back of our Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers head when we were in first year," Ron started

WHAT. Maybe this school isn't so boring, after all!

"WAIT, so You-Know-Who was on the back of some blokes head and nobody noticed?" I asked in disbelief.

"He did cover is quite well, in our defense," George muttered, running a hand through the back of his hair.

"And you took him on?" I cried. "And you were_ eleven_?"

Harry, Ron and Hermione all shrugged.

"Then there was the basilisk in second year," Hermione added.

"YOU TOOK ON A BASILISK? MAN, WHAT ARE YOU, SUPERMAN?" I cried in disbelief.

The three Weasley's seemed confused. Sam was sniggering.

"God, what happened in your third year? You caught Sirius Black?" I laughed at my own joke. I stopped when they all began to nod. "YOU CAUGHT SIRIUS BLACK? LIKE, CRIMINAL ESCAPED FROM AZKABAN, SIRIUS BLACK?"

They kept nodding and shrugging.

"Bull _fucking_ shit."

"Er… back to the Triwizard Tournament," Fred said quickly, trying not to laugh at me. "McGonagall said that you get awarded points from the judges on how well you complete the tasks."

"Who are the judges?" Sam asked curiously.

Hermione was the one who answered. "Well, the heads of the participating schools are always on the panel, of course. All three of them were injured in the Tournament of 1972 when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on a rampage."

Everyone stared at her in surprise, and she rolled her eyes as she continued in a slightly superior tone. "Honestly, it's all in _Hogwarts: A History_, if you'd bother to read it. Although it's not entirely reliable. A better title would probably be _A Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School_."

"Er… what?" Ron asked.

"House elves!" The small girl exploded angrily. "Not once, in over a thousand pages does Hogwarts: A History mention that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!"

There was a tense silence after Hermione's outburst, which I ended up breaking.

"…bull_shit_ you captured Sirius Black."

* * *

><p>I spent the next few hours lounging around the common room studying with Alicia and chatting with Katie about all the new people I'd met since coming here. Katie held a lot of pessimism for such a tiny girl, and hurried to tell me the faults of every single person I'd met. Fred and George were huddled in a corner whispering about something, and at one stage I bonded with Harry Potter over the fact that Moody had cursed him multiple times in his lesson, too. And once again, I must mention how much of a psycho that man is.<p>

Eventually I headed to bed at around 11 o'clock. However, I was woken up at around 1am due to a loud clap of thunder outside. That was one of the many things I hated about England; a nice, sunny day can change to rain in a second. Once I was awake, I just couldn't fall back asleep. The sound of rain, which I've heard is supposed to be soothing, was just unnerving. Also, I was so excited about the arrival of the other schools later today that I couldn't even close my eyes. So I dragged my doona off of my bed and made my way down to the common room.

I was nearly in the common room when my doona got caught on something on the wall, and suddenly I had tumbled down the last two stairs and into the main room.

Great. Smooth, Bree, real smooth.

To my surprise (and embarrassment), loud laughter came from the fireplace. Looking up, I was surprised to see George sitting on one of the chairs, staring back at me and clutching his stomach in laughter.

"How did you even do that?" He demanded, still laughing.

I pulled myself to my feet quickly and stomped over to George. "I happen to be exceptionally graceful."

"I can see!" He flopped down onto the couch, but pulled his long legs up so I had a place to sit. I pulled the doona up with me and wrapped it around myself. It took a few minutes for me to wriggle around and get comfy in the huge mass, but when I did, I looked up at George and shot him a large self-satisfied grin. He grinned back and shook his head slightly.

"You truly are one of a kind, Bree," He told me. I grinned wider and gave him a thumbs up. "So, what are you doing down here, Breezy?"

"The rain sounds too unnerving, and I'm really excited about the arrival of the other schools. I just can't get to sleep. I know I'll regret it in the morning."

"Are many of your friends coming?" George asked curiously, and I shrugged.

"They're all being really annoying and keeping really quiet about it, to make it a surprise I think. It's just irritating."

"How many do you think are coming?"

"Knowing my school and my friends, none of them would want to miss out on this opportunity. They're kind of like you in that sense."

George laughed. There was a small comfortable silence, where I just stared at the weak fire. "Are things getting better? Do you like England a bit more now?"

"Oh, of course! I just had the same bed at Walden for four years- I was used to it. Hogwarts is so new. England is so new! It's so… wet…"

"…_Wet_?" George was trying to hide a grin, and he sounded amused.

I narrowed my eyes. "What? America was dry. Shut up. Look, the point is, this is a new place… A new place I didn't even want to come to. But I'm actually really starting to enjoy it. It's obviously a really huge change, but you guys have made the transition_ so_ much easier."

There was a small pause. "Well, I'm glad you came here."

"Yeah?" I asked, curiously. "Why's that?"

"You're a lot of fun. You've only been here for a little while, but I really like having you around… Everyone does. You're a really comfortable person to be around. We feel like we've known you longer than we have." He answered. I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm giving this place a chance, don't worry. I'm really glad Sam's adjusting so well, he's a big sweetheart and he just stresses so much!"

"Yeah, Ron's a good kid; he'll take care of him. We might give him hell sometimes, but he's great. Harry and Hermione are really good, too."

"What's with the, er… House Elf rants?" I asked, remembering earlier today when Hermione was talking about it. George laughed loudly.

"It's a new thing. She thinks House Elves need liberation; she started a club and everything. Course, Harry and Ron are the only other members. Hermione's very enthusiastic a lot of the time."

"Her and Ron are going to end up married, you know," I told him in a matter of fact tone.

George looked at me, shocked, and raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"They have this chemistry! I can just tell. You wait and see!" I told him.

"I think Mum hopes they will," He told me, smiling slightly crookedly.

"Don't you have a really big family?" I asked curiously.

Folding his legs under himself to get more comfortable, he nodded. "Yeah, there are a lot of us. Six boys and one girl."

"It must be nice. Like, always having someone you can go to. I don't know where I'd be without Sam and Toby."

"We're a pretty tight family, too. I'll introduce you to Ginny sometime; she's in her third year. You and Sam seem to be really close."

"My little brother is amazing. He's so sweet, and I always worry about him, just like Toby worries about me."

"If you keep falling down staircases, I don't wonder why," George smirked. I kicked his knee from under the doona.

There was another pause, before I realized something. "Hey, why are _you_ down here?"

"Lee snores," He said simply.

I couldn't help but burst out into laughter. "Are you serious?"

He looked genuinely offended. "Laugh now, but you've never heard it."

Still giggling, I slid down the couch and rested my head against the pillow, trying to stifle a yawn.

"You should go back to bed, the rain's stopped," George said.

And so it has. I didn't even notice. "Don't you want me to stay up with you?"

He crinkled his nose. "Nah, I might just sleep on this couch tonight, actually."

"Lee can't be _that_ bad…"

"You go up there and see!" He challenged. "If you think he's bad during waking hours, you wait until you've seen him sleeping!"

Giggling again, I stood up, still wrapped up in my doona. "See you tomorrow, Georgie."

A small smile danced on his face, accentuated by the firelight. "Goodnight, Breezy. Sleep tight."

When I crawled back into my bed a few minutes later, I had no more trouble getting back to sleep.

* * *

><p>All day, my excitement couldn't be contained. I was practically bopping up and down with all the energy I had, and I didn't stop smiling once, not even when Snape took away 10 house points because I messed up my fifth potion this week. Nope. Nothing could bring my mood down.<p>

"Merlin, I thought you were cheery normally, but this is just frightening," Lee muttered.

When the bell rang for the end of the day, I practically skipped up to the common room to dump my bags before we headed down to the front entrance of the school.

The Heads of House were trying to organize their students, without much success. McGonagall looked like she was about to actually murder the next person she had to correct the uniform of.

"Weasley, straighten your hat!" She snapped at Ron. "Miss Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair!"

A younger girl scowled as she removed an ornamental butterfly from her hair. Well, in McGonagall's defense, that thing was butt ugly.

"Alright, follow me, please. First years in front… No pushing." McGonagall ordered.

We all lined up on the front steps of the castle. It was a lovely day; dusk was just falling and the moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest (what a stupid name for a forest, so dark and depressing), and I was nearly shaking in excitement. From infront of me, Katie turned and shot me a huge grin. And then we waited.

And waited.

I checked Fred's watch; they were cutting it pretty fine. There was a tense silence from the people around me, until Dumbledore called from the back "Aha! Unless I am mistaken, the delegations from Beauxbatons are approaching!"

Everyone's heads shot around in different directions, until a Hufflepuff third year yelled out "there!" and pointed towards the sky.

"Oh, CRAP!" Katie cried from in front of me, sounding impressed.

A gigantic, powder blue carriage was flying over the trees of the Forbidden Forest, pulled by a dozen winged horses. The horses were the size of elephants, and as it hurtled closer the students nearer the front drew back a bit. Then, with an almighty crash that made a few people jump, the horse's hooves touched the ground, and a second later the carriage hit the ground, too, bouncing on its vast wheels. There was a moment of awed silence, before the door of the carriage burst open, and a pale boy in light blue robes jumped out, bent forward, and unfolded a set of small golden stairs. He sprang back respectfully and a shining, high heeled black shoe appeared.

And then the largest woman I had ever laid eyes on appeared. She was bloody HUGE. Not to be rude or anything but that woman has to be half giant!

"Oh, damn!" Lee muttered in shock.

The huge woman stepped out of the carriage and stared around at us, and Dumbledore started to clap. We all quickly followed his lead.

Her face relaxed into a smile, and she walked forwards towards Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. I stopped paying attention because the students were getting out of the carriage now. A dozen boys and girls, all in their late teens were now standing before us. They were all shivering, and I don't blame them, as their uniforms seemed to be made of fine silk. They were all staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks, much like I imagine I would have looked like on my first day. The large woman seemed to have finished talking to Dumbledore now, and motioned the Beauxbatons students to follow her into the warmth of the castle. Then, we all set in for another wait.

An odd suctioning noise filled the air, and it sounded very eerie. Everyone's heads shot up and looked around frantically, eager for another impressive entrance.

"THERE! THE LAKE!" Lee yelled out, and everyone's heads shot in that direction.

The usually clear surface of the Black Lake (again, this school needs more cheerful names for things) was now filled with ripples and bubbles in the water. Water seemed to be overflowing and sloshing out onto the banks, and then suddenly in the very middle of the Lake, a whirlpool appeared, and from the whirlpool a large black pole began to emerge… within a moment, a huge ship had appeared out of the whirlpool, gleaming in the moonlight.

"Now that is impressive!" Fred said, nodding in approval.

The ship reached the bank and a huge plank descended onto the shore. The outlines of large figures began to disembark and walk towards us. As they got closer, I saw that their bulky figures were due to the large furry coats they were wearing. The man at the front had on robes with sleek, silky fur. He let off an air of threat, with his scowling face and beady eyes, and I didn't really like him at all by my first impression.

"Dumbledore!" He called in a friendly, thickly accented voice, completely contrasting his mean looks. His large grin didn't reach his eyes; they stayed cold and shrewd. The man conversed with Dumbledore, but I could no longer hear from my spot. He motioned one of his students forward (I noticed they were all large, strong men, yum) and the boy came forwards, his head down.

There was a sharp intake of breath from my right and Lee shot his arm out to grab onto my wrist, faltering slightly.

"Oh, Merlin, are you okay?" I cried, reaching out to grab him.

"Krum!" He breathed out.

"What?"

"Krum! Oh, Merlin, that's Victor Krum! Bulgaria's seeker!" He hissed out. "If you don't know who he is, I will slap you, I don't care if it's wrong to hit girls, I will slap you for this."

"Of course I know who he is, Lee."_ Lie._

Everyone around me was murmuring as the Bulgarians headed into the castle, but McGonagall soon shushed us. Despite the silence, you could still feel the excitement. Lee was practically shaking.

So we waited.

And we waited.

And for a brilliant change of pace, we waited some more. We waited so much, Lee even managed to calm himself down. Well, enough to grumble out a "Breeface, your school fucking sucks. It's not polite to keep everyone waiting."

I heard Ruby from his other side, "That could be polite in America; you _so _don't even know that is isn't, Lee!"

Oh, bloody philosopher, that one.

"Oh!" Dumbledore called. "Walden approaches!"

I squealed slightly as everyone looked around desperately to find the approaching school. There was a movement in the trees of the Forbidden Forest, and from the darkness, what looked like huge scorpions appeared. They were missing the pincers on their front legs and were a dark black in color. There were two, and I immediately knew this was Walden's entrance because our crazy gamekeeper bred these animals; they were called Scorsese, and despite looking threatening enough to cause the kids in the front rows to shuffle back nervously, they were actually the most docile, friendly animals I'd ever encountered.

The Scorsese came out of the trees and following them on wheels was a huge, shiny black, rounded carriage. The whole effect looked like a darker, more sinister version of the pumpkin carriage and horses that took Cinderella to the Ball. And I loved it.

There were some murmurings as the carriage came closer, and I began to fiddle with my hands anxiously, biting my lip. Then, the Scorsese turned so the door of the carriage was facing us, and it banged open harshly, shocking a few students. Stairs unfolded, and my old Headmistress came striding down, Professor Zira, looking more beautiful and harsh than ever before. But I paid no attention to her, I always hated her. She made her way up the stairs, ignoring our applause, to greet Dumbledore. From the carriage, students started piling out, and I knew every single one of them, if not by name, by face. The uniform, a checkered blue and black skirt with matching tie over the black blazer brought back memories, and I could hardly control myself from running down there and embracing every single person I saw, despite not being close friends. Then, near the end, they came. I had been friends with everyone in my year, because Walden was a friendly school, unlike the wars with other houses there were in Hogwarts. However, like anyone I had my closer group of friends, and as I watched, Ben Grant, James Wilson, Persephone Jameson and Delilah Cortez walked out of the carriage. There were far more students from Walden than the other two schools. I stared at the carriage, hopeful for any more. I started to lose hope, when suddenly Callie Henderson stumbled out of the door, grinning from ear to ear, and when I saw my best friend in the entire world stare around the crowd, searching, and she met my eyes with a huge grin, I found it a little difficult not to tear up. From beside me, George reached over and wound his hand through mine, squeezing slightly.

This Tournament is going to be fantastic. In this moment, I cant imagine that anything bad could ever happen again.

* * *

><p><strong>THIS TOOK FOREVER TO GET OUT! Thankyou to everyone who reviewed, I got the biggest grin on my face when I read them! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, new one soon :D<strong>


	4. The Goblet of Fire, oh wow

Zira spoke with Dumbledore quickly and motioned for the Walden students to follow her. McGonagall turned and motioned that the Hogwarts students could go inside, but instead I flew down the stairs and threw myself at Callie. Ben, James, Persephone and Delilah jumped into it and soon we were all laughing and trying not to tip over with the weight of us all clutching onto each other.

"BREE!" Callie screeched loudly, letting me go and holding my upper arms, pushing me a fair distance away. "Merlin, my girl, look how you've grown! I feel like its been forever since I've seen you!"

"How's Hogwarts? Tell me everything!" Ben demanded, grabbing me and pulling me close for a hug.

"Oh, it's fantastic! England is dreary compared to L.A. But I love Hogwarts!" Bens eyes slid over my shoulder and I turned to see Katie, Angelina, George, Fred, Alicia and Lee standing and watching expectantly. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

I quickly introduced everyone, grinning like a mad man, as they all grinned at each other. Katie was so cheery she pulled my friends into hugs, and James enthusiastically hugged her back. I can see him and Lee getting along quite well.

"Are the rumors true?" Delilah whispered to me. When I looked at her in curiosity, she looked around like she was about to tell me a huge secret. "Does Harry Potter go here?"

I laughed loudly. Delilah was one boy crazed girl, and she had always been obsessed with the legend of Harry Potter defeating the Dark Lord.

"And Viktor Krum arrived not twenty minutes ago," I winked at her, and she squealed, pulling me into a big hug.

"Come on, we should go inside!" I said, grabbing Callie's hand and leading everyone into the Hall. Of course, Alicia had to take over, me being too new to actually know my way around and all.

Callie was chattering on, as she usually is. "This is so exciting! God, I can't wait to win this Tournament!"

"Hey, I think its clear Hogwarts is going to win this thing!" Lee defended. "Come on, your school can sit with the Gryffindor's!"

Until this moment, I'd forgotten how much I'd missed everybody. It just felt homely to have my old friends surrounding me, and I couldn't ask for anything better than having them here with my new Hogwarts friends.

The Beauxbatons students were at the Ravenclaw table, and the Durmstrang students were seating themselves at the Slytherin table.

"Look at how yummy they are!" Katie breathed out, biting her lip and winking at a passing Durmstrang boy.

"Look at Viktor Krum!" Lee answered, his awe coming back, and Katie giggled.

"Oh, I am," Delilah said, nodding appreciatively at the Quidditch player. We joined the Gryffindor table next to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Sam. Before she sat down, Callie spotted Sam and screeched his name, drawing a few shocked stares from people around us, before bolting over to where he was and drawing him into a fierce hug. Sam, being the sweetheart that he is, grinned and hugged her back as well as he could considering she was behind him and he was sitting down.

Callie was like family. She spent most summers at our house, and she, Sam and Toby got along fantastically. Probably better than Toby and I did sometimes. But that was just Callie; she was really easy to love. Even my Mother liked her.

"Your school is so gothic!" Ben said, settling into the Gryffindor bench. "Walden is so much more modern and… you know…"

"Less creepy," Callie supplied, nodding. Fred, George, Lee, James and Persephone had started a conversation about quidditch once they'd exhausted the topic of Viktor Krum, and I couldn't help but grin.

"…where do you reckon they're going to sleep?" I heard Ron saying. "We could offer him a space in our dormitory… I wouldn't mind giving him my bed; I could kip on a camp bed…"

Fred and George were sniggering at Ron, but Alicia gave him a kind look. "I'm sure he'd appreciate that, Ron."

"Yeah, but when he caught you sniffing the pillowcase after he'd slept on it, he's be less appreciative," George said. Ron shot him a dirty look and blushed a bit. Aw, Ronnie.

"Tell me everything I've missed, how is everyone?" I demanded. Delilah's eyes lit up, ever the gossip.

"Oh, so much, Bree, you've missed _so much_! The teachers all miss you," She told me, smiling.

"Oh, that's so sweet! I knew they would." Their lessons would be so boring without me around.

Delilah spent the next few minutes updating me on the school gossip, with pitching in from everyone else. To their credit, Fred, George, Alicia, Angelina, Lee and Katie all listened intently as though they knew the people we were talking about.

Filch the seedy caretaker was adding chairs to the staff table, and Dumbledore entered from a side door along with the visiting Headmasters. When the French headmistress entered, all of the Beauxbatons students stood respectfully. Zira shot a look over the crowd, and Callie snorted.

"As if anyone would do anything like that for you, you old bat," she muttered, glaring. Zira was a harsh bitch and nobody really appreciated her.

"She's pretty hot," Lee threw out offhandedly. Callie looked at him like he'd slapped her in the face.

Dumbledore stood at the front of the Hall and waited patiently for the noise to die down. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and, most particularly, guests! I have great pleasure in welcoming all of you to Hogwarts. I hope and trust your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

One of the Beauxbatons girls gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh.

Katie shot around, glaring at her. "What a shame you were_ forced_ to be here," she gritted out sarcastically, just loud enough for the girl to hear, who turned and gave Katie a cold glare. Alicia nudged Katie, shaking her head in exasperation.

"Let's not offend the foreign students," Alicia muttered.

"I would like everybody to give a warm welcome to Professor Karkaroff of the Durmstrang School, Madame Maxime of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and Professor Zira of Walden Institution of Magic," Dumbledore continued, and there was loud applause throughout the Hall. "The Tournament will officially be opened at the end of the Feast. I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

With that he sat and started conversing with Karkaroff (he looks even seedier than Mad-Eye friggen Moody). The food, as usual, appeared on the table, and it seemed the House Elves downstairs had outdone themselves this time. The food is usually impressive, but Merlin my mouth was watering tonight.

"Still as hungry as ever, Bree," Ben commented in a cheery tone, helping himself to some weird looking French dish. I stuck my middle finger up at him while heaping mashed potatoes onto my plate.

"Aw, Breezy's healthy appetite is endearing," Fred commented, leaning over to squeeze my shoulder and grin.

Over dinner, my American friends updated me on everything that had happened (and because Ben is the most overdramatic boy on the planet, everything that didn't happen, but he thinks should have). With everything they were telling me, I started to get a bit homesick for Walden. Delilah got up midway through dinner and switched places with Mark on my side of the table because it was too difficult to continually turn over her shoulder to stare at all the Durmstrang boys (Just Viktor Krum, mostly). I was really happy because it seemed like everyone was getting along really well (Lee kept the flirting to a minimum until he realized Delilah was flirting back).

"Zira's been really weird this year," Mark told me, to the agreement of the others, as he shot a dark look at my old Headmistress. "Meaner. Most of the time she stays locked up in her office."

"Her and Karkaroff seem to be pretty friendly," Callie said, staring at the staff table. And that was true; Zira seemed to be in deep conversation with Karkaroff.

"Wait, what's wrong with your headmaster?" George asked curiously.

The Walden students shrugged slightly, looking at each other for an answer. "She's mean." Ben eventually said.

"She just isn't really a trustworthy woman. Something about her has always seemed a bit dodgy, and she's never held much care for any of her students." Callie added.

"Not that Walden isn't great!" Mark added quickly. "The schools fantastic, everything about it is amazing. Which makes it even stranger how such an odd woman is Headmistress."

At that moment, there was a feminine cough somewhere to the left of me. The French girl who had laughed in Dumbledore's speech was standing behind Fred and looking at Ron.

"Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" She asked, smiling politely.

Ron stared at her in shock, his mouth falling open. He looked like he was trying to say something, and was turning a bit red from the effort, but all that really came out was a faint gurgling noise.

"Here, have it," Sam told her, pushing the dish towards her, and glancing at Ron in slight concern.

"You 'ave finished wiz it?"

"Yeah," Ron said breathlessly, staring at the girl in total admiration. "Yeah, it was excellent.

The girl picked up the dish and carried it back to the Ravenclaw table. Everything about that girl was graceful and poised, and Ron stared at her all the way back to her table.

"Hey, Ron, why don't you look at _me_ like that?" I demanded jokingly, and he turned a brighter red than he already was. Fred and George were laughing so hard at their brother, I barely heard Dumbledore clear his throught from the front of the room over them.

"Oh, look, it's Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch!" Hermione said, smiling.

Bagman was a large, jolly looking man, and Crouch was the complete opposite. He wore all grey robes with a black bowler hat and a stupid little grey toothbrush moustache that made Callie break down into laughter every time she looked at it.

"The time has come," Dumbledore announced, now standing at the front of the Hall. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words before we bring out the casket-"

Callie gripped my hand with hers on the table and squeezed, letting out a tiny, quiet squealing noise. "I have never been more excited in my entire life!"

"-just to clarify the procedure which we will be following this year. But firstly, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. They have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament-"

"Crouch looks like he's never slept in his entire life, just stayed awake and stressed out. Like a vampire, but less sexy and more fucking creepy," Callie muttered, and Lee sniggered.

"-And they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime and Professor Zira on the panel which will judge the champions efforts."

The Hall had taken on a tense silence now. We were all waiting impatiently on news of the champions.

Dumbledore smiled mysteriously. "The Casket, please, Mr. Filch."

Filch hobbled his way to the front of the Hall carrying a large wooden casket encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. Callie had taken on a quiet murmured chant of "_ohmygodohmygodohmygod_…" and Lee was practically bouncing again. George turned to look at me and gave me the biggest grin I've ever seen, and I couldn't help but smile back.

As Filch placed the casket on a small table at the front of the Hall, Dumbledore surveyed everybody in the tense silence. "Eternal glory," he said simply, "That is what awaits the person who wins the Triwizard Tournament."

"Wicked," Fred and George muttered at the same time. Again, George grinned down at me.

"But to do so," Dumbledore continued, "This person must survive three tasks. Three _extremely dangerous_ tasks. These tasks have been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman, and will be spaced over the course of the school year. They will test the champions in many different ways… Their magical prowess… their daring… their powers of deduction… and of course, their ability to cope with danger." Dumbledore paused, and Mr. Crouch came forwards to stand beside him. Dumbledore stepped back and all attention shifted to the smaller man beside him.

"After due consideration the Ministry has concluded that for their own safety, no student under the age of seventeen shall be permitted to put forth their name for the Triwizard Tournament." At Crouch's words, the Hall broke into noise. Nobody seemed pleased with this rule, and Fred and George were booing.

"That's rubbish!" George yelled.

"Rubbish! _Boo!"_ Fred cried.

Dumbledore stepped forward and one cold stare had the room deathly silent again.

Crouch sighed, as though used to being the bad guy, and continued. "There shall be an age line cast so that nobody under the required age will be tempted to place their name in the cup. Thank you."

There was scattered applause, before Dumbledore began to speak again. "Four champions, one representative from each school, shall compete in the Tournament. The Champions will be chosen by one impartial judge… The Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore knelt down to where the Casket was, and I strained my neck trying to see above everyone ahead of me. Being so tiny sucks, I was craning my neck over bloody fourth years. Dumbledore stood, and I saw that he was holding a large wooden cup. I let out a breath of air as I saw the large blue flames dancing inside and above it. Dumbledore placed it on top of the now closed casket, where everybody in the Hall could see it.

There was a pause as Dumbledore surveyed the Hall again. "Anyone wishing to submit their name must only write their name and school on a piece of paper, and throw it in the flame. You have until this time tomorrow night. But do not do so lightly! If chosen, there's no turning back. You stand alone to complete the entire Tournament. There can be no change of heart. As of this moment, the Triwizard Tournament has begun."

There was another pause. Everybody was tense, I think, from Dumbledore's warning. But then he gave a small smile and clapped his hands together. "I think it is time for bed. Goodnight to you all."

"An age line!" Fred exploded as soon as he stood up. "Bullshit!"

"It should be fooled by an ageing potion, and once your names in the Goblet, you're laughing. It doesn't know if you're seventeen or not!" George said. Lee was so angry he'd stopped flirting back with Delilah.

"I don't think anyone under seventeen would want to get in," Hermione said timidly. "I mean, until seventh year, you just haven't learnt enough…"

"Speak for yourself!" George snapped, "I'm getting in that Tournament. Oi, Harry, you want in?"

Harry made a face.

"Dumbledore would be so mad if someone under seventeen managed to get in." Sam piped up.

Ron wasn't paying any attention at all. "Where is he? Where is he?" He cried, craning his neck to look through the Hall. "Where are the Durmstrang students sleeping?"

At that moment, Karkaroff led them all past us. Harry stepped to the side to that they could exit the Hall first, and Karkaroff glanced carelessly at him. And then he stopped, and looked again. His eyes travelled all up Harry until he reached his scar, and then his eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, that's Harry Potter," Came a voice from behind us. I turned to see it was Moody and immediately stepped a bit behind George. Ever since the lesson with the Imperius Curse, I've been a bit edgy around this guy.

Karkaroff spun around and his eyes narrowed even more. "You!"

"Yeah, me," Moody said, stepping forwards. "Unless you got anything to say to Potter, would you mind moving? You're blocking the doorway."

With one last glare at Harry, Karkaroff turned and swept out of the Hall. What the bloody hell was all that?

When the Durmstrang students were gone, Zira breezed past. She turned at the Entrance Hall and snapped her fingers as though calling to a trained puppy. Then again, Walden seemed to be the least behaved school visiting. The other two had formed lines and immediately found their Headmaster. The Walden students were scattered through the Hall, taking their time.

"Walden!" She called in her clipped voice. "To the carriage. Now!"

Callie made a face and turned, pulling me into a bear hug. "I'll see you at Breakfast, okay?"

I got the same treatment from everyone, and before I realized, Lee had sidled up and pulled me into a tight hug, squeezing my upper body against his. Laughingly, I pushed him away harshly and he held a hand up to his heart in mock pain.

After a few more waves, I regrettably had to actually leave my Walden friends. Fred and George were still chattering on about the Triwizard Tournament, their outlook getting brighter as they convinced each other they'd be able to enter. Katie linked her arm through mine and grinned.

"You know this isn't going to work out as well as they think it is," she giggled.

"Oh, I'm counting on that."

* * *

><p>The next day was Saturday, so of course I intended to sleep in. The room was silent, there was a light drizzle outside and my bed had to be the comfiest thing in the world at that point in time. I sighed in content and snuggled deeper into my pillow with a smile.<p>

Then a huge bundle of pale skin and dark hair jumped right on top of me, screaming loudly. Felix bolted up from where he had cuddled into my feet and hissed, diving under Alicia's bed next to me, as I shot up screaming and hitting whatever had hit me. I stopped when I heard loud, familiar laughing.

"KATIE!" I screeched, and started hitting harder. Katie, though tiny herself, bigger than me, managed to grab both my wrists through her laughter and grinned hugely.

"It's time to wake up, Bree!"

"Katie, its 8:30 in the fucking morning, let me sleep!" I whined, falling backwards onto the pillow. Katie was still on top of me and so she pulled me back up by my wrists.

"Come on, I told the boys we'd meet them downstairs! The twins were up until midnight last night making their damn ageing potion and I intend to see them enter their names! So come on, Breezy!"

Why did I befriend someone with so much energy so early in the morning?

I eventually dragged myself to my feet to see Angelina and Alicia sitting on Alicia's bed and watching in amusement. Felix's dark eyes were the only thing I could make out through the blackness of under Alicia's bed, and I rolled my eyes at his hateful stare. Fat cat.

Ten minutes later, I'd thrown on the first pair of jeans I could find and a warm coat, pulled my hair into something socially acceptable, and we were off.

Fred, George and Lee were practically bouncing in excitement, laughing loudly as they spoke.

"Oh, finally!" George groaned out loudly, but he couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

"What's got you three so happy?" I asked suspiciously.

"One of us three is going to be the Triwizard Champion, that's what!" Lee told us gleefully.

"Soon enough, our names will be in that cup. I will have eternal glory, and more ladies than usual will be lining up for a piece of my fine ass," Fred said, winking. I rolled my eyes. Katie giggled; their excitement seemed to have rubbed off onto her.

"We'll go take the potion and meet you in the Great Hall in a few minutes," George said.

"Come on, let's go!" Katie cried, grabbing my arm and pulling. We made it to the Great Hall quickly, and I quickly made my way over to Sam and his friends, wrapping my arm around Sam's shoulders and hugging him. Alicia, Angelina and Katie plopped down next to me.

"Anybody put their name in yet?" I asked.

"All the Durmstrang lot came a bit earlier," Sam told me. "Not anyone from Hogwarts that I've seen."

"This is so exciting!" Katie squealed. "I never thought I'd live to see the Triwizard Tournament reinstated!"

Just then, there was yelling from the front door. Fred, George and Lee bounded in, laughing loudly. They all looked really excited, in a sort of manic way.

"Done it! Just taken the ageing potion!" Fred called, and the thirty or so people in the Hall all turned to watch, a few Gryffindor's applauding.

"Just one drop, we only need to be a few months older," George added.

Lee nodded along gleefully. "If one of us wins, we're going to split the money between us!"

"It's not going to work," Hermione said in a sing song voice. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have considered this."

The three boys ignored her completely.

"Ready then?" Fred asked. "I'll go first!"

He walked right up to the edge of the age line and stood for a moment, with the eyes of everyone in the Hall on him. He rocked on his toes for a moment, like a diver preparing for a drop, before taking a deep breath and stepping over the line.

For a moment, I actually thought it might have worked. And apparently, so did George, as he let out an excited yell and jumped over the line to his brother. But next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both boys were thrown out of the circle. They spun and landed with a loud thud ten feet away, in a way that looked very painful. And then, they sat up simultaneously, and I broke down into laughter with the rest of the Hall.

The boys had grown identical, long white beards to even challenge Dumbledore's. George flopped back down onto the floor as the twins laughed, and Lee and I eventually managed to make our way over to the boys, dragging them to their feet. It was surprisingly difficult through all my laughter, but I somehow managed.

"I did warn you," said a deep voice, and I turned to see Dumbledore at the entrance to the Hall, chuckling at the boys. "I suggest you go up to Madame Pomfrey; she's already dealing with Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom also decided to age themselves up a little. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything as fine as yours."

At this, I couldn't help but be overcome by another loud round of laughter. Katie and Angelina were clutching each other for support, and Alicia was only just calming herself down.

Lee and I accompanied the twins up to the Hospital Wing, still chuckling.

"He's right, you know," I said, "You two do have _fantastic_ beards!"

"Thank you, dear Bree," Fred said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and rubbing the beard onto the side of my face. I ducked, laughing loudly, and swatted him in the arm.

When we entered the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey the nurse, who I had never met before, rolled her eyes good naturedly.

"You know," she said, ushering the twins to two beds in the corner of the room. "I had a hunch I might see you two at some stage."

With that, Lee broke down into laughter again. I was too busy, though. Because just as I entered the room, a tall Hufflepuff boy went to exit. I grinned up at him in apology for getting in his way, and was almost dazzled. He had the brightest white smile I'd ever seen and the loveliest tousled bronze hair. Oh Merlin.

"My fault, sorry," He said, grinning at me. Oh, it should be illegal to be that radiant, boy. "You're the new exchange student, aren't you?"

"That's me!" I chirped excitedly, and winced a bit at my over enthusiasm, trying to tone it down a bit to seem cooler than I actually am for this beautiful boy. "I'm Bree Montero."

"I'm Cedric Diggory," He told me, smiling and shaking my hand. "Well, I'm heading off now, but I might see you around sometime?"

"That sounds fantastic," I told him, nodding and giving a small wave goodbye. With one last radiant smile, he was gone, and I was left fanning myself as I walked over to the bearded twins, missing the small look of unhappiness George was shooting me.


	5. Bitch said WHAT!

Later that day found me dragging George by the arm down the Hallway excitedly. He was dragging his feet just to be annoying and crying "_Breeeeeeeeeeeee_! Where are we going?"

"I told you already, the library!"

"Why?"

"Because I've been here for so long and I've never even set foot in the school library! I mean, can you believe that?"

"Well yeah, Fred and I have avoided the library for three years and-" Seeing my expression, he changed his answer. "Oh, no, how is that possible? I _love_ the library, Madam Pince is a real sweetheart and-"

"Oh, shut it and move your butt faster!" I demanded, turning a corner quickly. George almost hit the wall with the force that I was pulling him.

We reached the library and I took a deep breath. I've always loved the smell of a library. The smell of so many books all piled in together. It was somewhat comforting.

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved books. I've always loved reading; it was always a comfort to me to curl up with a warm blanket and a book when things get rough.

George whistled, staring around slightly disdainfully. "Merlin, I haven't been here in _years_."

He shrugged at my look of horror, before following my lead as I skipped over to the first row of books. The library patron glared at me harshly, but I assumed that's just because I'm with George. I shot her a large grin and kept going.

"You're so childish," George laughed quietly once I stopped skipping and wandered through the shelves.

"Like you can talk," I muttered, exiting the Charms aisle.

Eventually I came across an aisle for Care of Magical Creatures down the back of the library, away from most people studying at the front of the large room. For a few moments, I just looked at all the different books, before seeing one on the top shelf titled 'The First Dragons,' which would probably be a book about people finding dragons and getting burnt, so I'd probably like it. George saw me looking at it and hummed lightly.

I looked over at him. "What?"

"Would you like me to get it for you?" He asked, trying not to smirk.

If there's one thing that pisses me off, it's people making comments about my height. I understand that I'm very, very short, but that doesn't mean I can't do things for myself. So I crossed my arms (slightly childishly, I'll admit) and snapped "No thank you, I'm perfectly capable of getting it myself!"

"Hey, I was just being-"

"Capable. Of. Getting. It. _Myself_!" I gritted out again. He held up his hands and turned away from me and I glared at the top of his head. Merlin, I'm even shorter when compared to him. It's not fair for the Weasley twins to be so unnaturally tall.

I stared up at the book in contemplation. George could have easily reached it, whereas there's no way I can. Well, my pride won't allow me to ask for help, so I'll try it myself. I dropped my bag on the floor next to me and stared up at the shelf again.

I jumped and made a wild grab, but I still didn't even reach the shelf below the one I wanted. Crap, I'll need a bigger jump. So, I stepped onto the first shelf of the bookcase and jumped from there, but still missed. George turned quickly when he heard my light gasp from hitting the floor. I simply waved and glared. Raising an eyebrow, he turned away again to look at another shelf.

How do I get this book and still keep my ego intact? Okay, regroup my thoughts and look at this logically. Let's go for Plan B and hope I don't look like an idiot.

Slowly, and hoping the Librarian didn't come looking around this way while I did this, I grabbed around the fifth shelf and stepped up onto the first shelf. Okay. So far, so good. This shelf is my Mt. Everest, and I _will_ conquer it.

I stepped up onto the second shelf and reached up. I could grab the book, but just barely. I stood on my tiptoes on the edge of the shelf and tried to grasp the spine of the book, and it slowly began to slide closer towards me.

It was practically hanging over the edge now, and when I made a noise of triumph and went to grab the book, I knocked it accidentally and it fell off the shelf and hit me right in the face.

With the force of the hit and the surprise of my now throbbing head, I lost my grip on the shelves and fell back to the ground, hitting awkwardly with both of my legs. My ankles both let out from under me and I fell against the bookcase opposite the one I was originally on, my shoulder hitting hard.

Suddenly, I was on the ground and George was above me, but I could see two of him. "Bree! Oh, Merlin, Bree, are you okay?"

I closed my eyes tightly and then quickly opened them, but there were still two shapes above me. Then I realized that there was only one George.

The other person was Viktor Krum, famous bloody Quidditch player. Typical that I'd meet a celebrity and he would have seen me do something idiotic like this.

I couldn't concentrate on my embarrassment for long when the pain in my head and right ankle was so strong.

"Are you alright?" Viktor asked with a strong Bulgarian accent, looking concerned.

"That was a_ huge_ fall, Bree!" George said, looking at me in concern.

"I'm lucky I survived that," I muttered, wincing at the pain in my head and reaching up to rub my temples. George held out a hand for me and he pulled me to my feet. Apparently he did it too fast, because I immediately began to sway and nearly hit the book case again. Viktor and George both reached out quickly to steady me.

When I regained my balance, Viktor took his hand away, but George kept his on my upper arm just in case.

"Are you alright?" Krum repeated.

I looked up at him sheepishly. "That wasn't as graceful as I would have liked."

George let out a relieved laugh, and Viktor smiled charmingly. I understand why Delilah likes him so much (but I still don't understand why Lee likes him so much).

"Thanks for the help," I said, clutching onto George a bit harder than I would have liked, because I was still really dizzy and trying to retain some form of dignity in front of Viktor Krum. "I'm Bree,"

George waved with the hand I wasn't clutching on to with a death grip. "I'm George."

"I am Viktor; it is nice to meet you both. Are you sure you are alright?"

"Yeah, happens all the time," I said, waving my hand loosely and he raised his eyebrows. "Sorry for interrupting you. It was nice of you to help, but I'm okay now. Scouts honor!"

I held up my pointer and middle finger in a scouts honor sign, and George snorted. I winced, realizing how much of a dork I really am.

Viktor nodded and bid us a goodbye, before going back around the corner of the book shelf. As soon as he was out of sight, I crumpled and George let out a surprised noise, before gripping me tighter. "Oh, Bree!"

"I am dying, George, this is the _end_," I gasped out, lifting up my throbbing ankle, only to have the other one start to hurt at the pressure I put on it. "It was nice knowing you, Georgie! Take care of Katie; she won't be able to function without me!" I cried dramatically.

George rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was still pretty concerned by the way he pursed his lips. "Can you walk?"

I scoffed. "Of course I can walk." However, when I went to take a step forward, I crumpled to the ground immediately when my ankles gave out again.

"Yeah, actually, that's not happening, bro," I grunted in pain, and George considered the situation for a moment.

"I'll have to take you to Madam Pomfrey," he decided. "Come on, Bree, I'll help you."

He wrapped his arm around my waist, but paused and grinned cheekily when he realized I couldn't reach his shoulders to wrap my arms around to steady myself. He was being really helpful so I resisted the urge to punch him in the gut.

"Alright, get on my back," He said, pulling away.

I considered him for a moment. "What?"

"Come on, Bree, its easy! Just hop on my back!" He told me, stepping in front of me and getting down onto his knees. "I'll carry you."

I pursed my lips before limping over and climbing onto his back ungracefully. Hell, I'm not having a very bloody graceful day today. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he grabbed my knees, before standing up again and setting off back towards the front of the library. The Librarian shot us a horrified look as we passed, and I pretended not to see.

As he continued out the doorway and through the corridors, I glanced around. "So this is what its like to be tall?"

"Yeah, it's great up here, isn't it?"

Resting my chin on his shoulder, I grinned. "You should give me piggybacks more often, you know!"

"I'll keep that in mind." I could hear the smile in his voice. "I can't believe you went to all that trouble just to get a stupid book down. I would've helped you."

"I didn't need help!" George let out a snort and muttered what sounded like 'clearly.'

"Hey, why didn't you just use magic to get the book anyway?" George asked.

In that moment, I felt truly embarrassed. I pursed my lips in anger and didn't respond. Because, you know, using magic, as a witch, would have been the logical answer. Shit.

A few minutes later, George pushed open the doors to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey looked up from where she was standing next to a blonde boy in one of the beds.

"Back twice in one day?" She asked, raising her eyebrows, and George laughed.

"This time, it's not me. Bree hurt herself,"

"Oh, what did you do to her?" The woman scolded, and I couldn't help but laugh.

George shook his head. "All her, Madam Pomfrey. She fell off a book case and hit her head, then collapsed on her ankle. She can't walk; I think it might be broken."

I tried not to blush as Madam Pomfrey ushered us over to an empty bed. The play by play of my accident wasn't necessary.

George carried me over to the bed and then bent down so I could drop off of his back and onto the mattress. He immediately sat down next to me.

"Maybe you could sugarcoat the story a bit next time," I muttered, and George smirked.

Soon enough, Madam Pomfrey returned, holding a glass and a bottle of dark grey liquid that looked very unpleasant.

"This will mend your bones quite quickly, along with any other side injuries you may have sustained, but it will hurt a bit in the process, so be prepared," she warned.

Grinning, I took the glass she had poured for me. "Just call me Danger," I grinned, and George stifled another laugh. Madam Pomfrey raised her eyebrows at me in a way that said 'lets see how long you think that,' before leaving George to take care of me and hurrying away.

I quickly drained the glass, and nearly choked on the putrid taste, dropping the glass as I brought my hands up to my mouth to stifle my coughing. George rolled his eyes and mended the glass in seconds.

"You didn't need to break the cup," he sang quietly, and I glared at him, gagging at the taste of metal and vomit from the liquid.

For a moment, we sat in silence, and then I remembered something. Groaning, my head fell back. "My bag! I left it in the library!"

"I'll go get it," George volunteered, and stood up. "I'll be back in five minutes. Do you think you can manage without me?"

When he was gone, I flopped back on the bed to rest against the headboard, staring around. And suddenly, I recognized the blonde boy next to me. He was in his fourth year, and I'd seen him before when he was turned into a ferret by Mad-Eye Moody. He was staring ahead of him, face wiped of any emotion, simply laying back in nearly the same position I was in, cradling his arm to his chest.

"What happened to you, then?" I asked, giving him a friendly smile. His head shot to me so fast I wouldn't be surprised if his neck cracked. He let go of what I'd assumed to be a sore arm, as though hiding any weakness from me, and a look of contempt came upon his face.

"How's it any of your business?" He snapped, glaring.

Since I was with Toby when he went through his angsty teenager stage (dyed his hair black and Mum nearly had a heart attack), this attitude didn't phase me. "I guess it's not, but you looked kind of sad."

"Well, I'm not!" He snapped, looking away.

There was a small pause where I think he thought I'd given up trying to talk to him. "I'm Bree Montero," I piped up, grinning at him and waving. "What's your name?"

He shot a small glare at me, and didn't answer.

"Oh, I get what's happening here. You want to challenge me to a guessing game. Or should I just call you grumpy?"

There was another small pause, before he muttered so quietly I barely heard him at all "I'm Draco Malfoy."

I jumped up so quickly I think it startled him a bit and sat on the side of my bed closest to him, stretching my hand out towards him and waiting for him to shake it. Slowly, he reached out to take my hand. I made sure to get the arm that wasn't sore without him needing to say anything.

"It's really nice to meet you, Draco!" I grinned at him, and he finally gave me a small smile in return, shaking my hand.

Madam Pomfrey came out from her stockroom and walked over to us. "Draco, just let me take one last look at your arm and then you'll be right to go."

I shuffled away from him to give him a sense of privacy, and lay back on the bed. Within a few moments, Madam Pomfrey dismissed Draco and he stood up from the bed slowly. He walked to the door and when he was nearly there, I called out "See ya later, Draco!" and waved like an idiot at him. He tried to hide a smile, but waved back unenthusiastically anyway.

As he left, George returned, looking very proud of himself for retrieving my bag as he strut into the room. Just as I lifted my head to look at him, a sharp pain ran from my ankle up through my leg. I let out a small gasp and reached down to grasp my ankle as the pain intensified, screwing my eyes shut and gritting my teeth. George exclaimed my name and hurried over to me, sitting down on the bed and grabbing my hand. I was glad to have him to hold onto as I squeezed his hand so tight I wouldn't be surprised if I snapped the bones in his fingers. George squeezed back nearly just as tight.

My ankle was on fire; it felt like the bone was ripping itself apart and out of my skin. I'd never been very good with pain but this is absolutely horrific. Is this how it will feel when Mad-Eye Moody finally snaps and starts putting the Cruciatus curse on students for fun (like none of you saw it coming)?

After a few long, torturous moments, the pain began to subside. I opened my eyes finally to see George staring at me in concern. To his credit, he'd stayed silent and still throughout the entire time I'd been in pain, gripping my hand tightly whenever I would gasp in pain. There was one final shot of pain from my ankle through to my toes, and it was over, nothing left but the shaking of my now weak legs.

Glancing down, I experimentally moved my ankle. It seemed okay now, and a large grin broke out on my face.

"Are you alright now?" George asked carefully. When I smiled and nodded, he grinned and pulled me up from the bed, slowly disentangling his hand from mine, and after a nod from Madam Pomfrey, we left the Hospital Wing.

"…Are you sure you don't need me to carry you again?"

"You're not funny."

* * *

><p>That night, the Great Hall filled up much earlier than I'd ever seen it. Everyone was so excited to hear who the Champions were that the Feast seemed to drag on forever.<p>

I was clutching Angelina's hand on one side and Callie's on the other, as they both had their names entered into the Goblet. Fred, George, Lee and Katie were all over their sulking and were just as excited as the rest of us, hopeful that our Champion wouldn't be a Slytherin. We were all discussing who was most likely to win over dinner.

"I hope you get chosen, Angelina," Sam said, smiling sweetly at Angie. She grinned widely and thanked him.

Finally, the golden plates disappeared and all noise in the Hall seemed to stop at once. Dumbledore was chuckling as he walked forwards slowly towards the Goblet of Fire, the cheeky old man.

Karkaroff, Maxime and Zira looked just as tense and expectant as anyone else. Ludo Bagman was beaming. Crouch looked completely uninterested.

"Now, to the moment you've all been waiting for; the Champion selection!" Dumbledore announced. "I would ask after the Champions have been named that they continue to the top of the Hall and through the door to the next chamber, where they will receive their first instructions.

He took out his wand and waved it through the Hall. At once, all the lights around the Hall dimmed, plunging us all into a state of semi-darkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything else in the Hall, the sparkling blue-white flames almost painful on the eyes, but I couldn't look away. Callie's hand became unbearably tight on my own, but I was sure I was squeezing her just as hard.

The flames turned suddenly bright red and roared to life. Sparks flew from it and from inside the fire, a tongue of fame shot into the air, a charred piece of paper falling from it.

Dumbledore caught the piece of paper and turned to the expectant crowd, unfolding it slowly.

"The Champion from Durmstrang," he read in a loud, strong voice, "is Viktor Krum!"

The cheering began, and Ron stood up to clap. "No surprises there!" Ron yelled, and I saw Fred roll his eyes at his brother. Viktor rose from the Slytherin table, a large, triumphant grin on his face as he walked over to Dumbledore and into the chamber beyond.

The applause had barely even died down for Viktor when the flames turned red again and spat out another small piece of paper.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," Dumbledore called, "is Fleur Delacour!"

The applause started up again as a girl with blonde hair stood up. When she turned, I could see the large smile on her face, and recognized her as the graceful girl Ron had been star struck by last night. I couldn't help but smile at her happiness, but then I caught sight of the remaining Beauxbatons students. None of them looked pleased. In fact, two girls were now leaning against each other and crying.

The flames again turned red and Dumbledore caught the third piece of parchment.

"The Walden champion," Callie squeezed my hand tightly as Dumbledore continued, "Is James Wilson!"

"YES!" James yelled, punching the air triumphantly and gathering a few laughs, as applause broke out. Callie and I had stood up to applaud and Mark let out a whistle as James jogged up to Dumbledore, grinning. He shook Dumbledore's hand and looked more openly enthusiastic than any of the other champions so far. I was one of the last people to stop applauding, too proud of James to wipe the grin off my face.

The Hall fell silent again when James had disappeared. It was a tense silence as the flames went red and the last piece of paper flew out of the Goblet.

"The Hogwarts Champion," Dumbledore called, "is Cedric Diggory!"

The uproar from the Hufflepuff table was so loud that nobody could hear Fred, George and Ron all moan in disappointment. I squeezed Angelina's hand quickly before applauding enthusiastically. I liked Cedric and thought he deserved to be a champion.

It took a few moments for the noise from the Hufflepuff table to die down and Dumbledore could make himself heard again. "Excellent! We now have our four champions! But in the end only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions… this vessel of victory… The Triwizard Cup!" He turned and motioned to where a large, glittering cup was now placed in the middle of the staff table. It was actually quite a dazzling trophy. Dumbledore continued talking. "I am sure I can count on the rest of you to support your champion-"

But I was no longer listening, and I don't think a lot of other people were, either. From behind Dumbledore, the flame in the Goblet was once again turning a bright red, sparks flying from it. A long flame shot from inside the fire, and another piece of parchment flew out on it. Dumbledore caught it, and for a moment he just stared at the name upon it, too shocked to speak. The Hall was deathly silent; nobody made any noise; nobody moved a muscle.

Finally, Dumbledore cleared his throat and surveyed the Hall in silence, as though looking for someone in particular. His eyes came to rest somewhere near where I was sitting.

"Harry Potter."

_WHAT?_

* * *

><p><strong>Short chapter, forgive me for any mistakes because I'm in a hurry and wanted to get this out! Next one will be longer. Thanks for reading, leave me a review and I'll love you forever!<strong>


	6. Adventures in Hogwarts

My eyes immediately fell to the black haired boy sitting a few people across from me, as did everyone else's. The Hall was deathly silent. Everyone around me looked shocked, but none more so than Harry himself.

He seemed to have frozen on the spot, his mouth open and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Harry Potter," Dumbledore called again into the silence. "Harry, could you come up here please?"

Harry didn't move. Hermione recovered from her shock and nudged him, and he seemed to wake up. Slowly, his movements groggy, he stood from the table and walked to Dumbledore. The Headmaster was not smiling, and did not shake his hand as he had done to the other champions.

As Harry got closer to the end of the Hall and eventually disappeared into the chamber beyond, noise began to break out again. Sam's eyes sought out mine from across the table, looking scared. Ron looked horrified. Katie's mouth was hanging wide open in shock. I could hear various phrases above the noise, such as "cheat!" but I couldn't pay attention. Dumbledore dismissed us from the Hall with a suddenly strained voice, and he and the other Headmasters disappeared into the chamber beyond, following the Champions.

"Oh Merlin!" Callie breathed out, grabbing my arm to pull me up. I was in shock. How could that have happened?

I hadn't seen Fred and George this enthused since before they'd attempted to put their own names into the Goblet.

"That _legend_!" Fred cried. "I can't believe he managed it!"

"Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived; Hogwarts Triwizard Champion!" George grinned, ignoring a few Hufflepuffs passing who glared at him harshly.

Callie gave my arm one last squeeze before she and the other Walden students left to go outside and back to their carriage. The Gryffindor's around us were all cheering and laughing enthusiastically as we made it back to the Common Room. Lee pulled me close to him, yelling enthusiastically, and I laughed loudly.

"GRYFFINDOR CHAMPION!" He yelled, and a man in a portrait beside us turned away, seeming horrified at all the noise we were making.

As we made it to the common room, Ron and Hermione immediately headed to bed. They seemed to be the only ones; it looked like every single Gryffindor student was crowding in the common room, too excited to sleep, to wait for Harry to come up from the meeting.

Lee looked around, confused, when Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the dark skinned boy, over to a window seat with him. He looked scared, and my good mood dropped. Immediately, I sat down next to him and he cried out "Bree, Harry didn't put his name in the cup! He didn't put his name in, so how was he chosen?"

I considered Sam for a moment. It wasn't really possible for Harry's name to be pulled out unless he had put it in the cup. But then again, it wasn't supposed to be possible for one school to have two champions, and that had happened.

And then I remembered him when he had been chosen; the look on Harry's face was not that of a triumphant champion, it was one of a confused, scared little boy.

Then I noticed how fast Sam had been speaking to me, and that he was twisting his hands together in his lap. These were two signs that had always indicated his anxiety levels getting higher, and I reached out to take one of his hands in my own and tried to calm him down before he could have an all out anxiety attack.

"Sam, calm down," I said gently, and he nodded, squeezing my hand, but not calming. "All we can do right now is wait for Harry to come back and see what happened. He'll know more than we do, but I promise he's going to be okay. He'll figure out what happened, and he'll be fine."

Slowly, Sam nodded to me, and we fell into silence, while the rest of the occupants of the room celebrated. Fred and George left to make a kitchen run and returned a few minutes later with enough food to put the kitchens out of service for a week.

Lee had been eyeing off Sam and I since I had left him, and he finally seemed to decide to come over and talk to us about our grim moods, when the portrait hole opened.

It was apparent immediately that Harry had arrived because of the loud cheers that erupted everywhere. Everyone in the room rushed towards the portrait hole, Fred and George at the front of the crowd. I could tell because they were so ridiculously tall I could see their heads sticking up above every single other persons.

"You should've told us you'd entered!" Fred yelled.

George grinned at Harry and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him further into the room. "How'd you do it without getting a beard?"

That was when I caught sight of Harry. George pulled him far enough into the room for me to see his pale complexion, his hair more messed up than usual, and I knew why when he ran his hand through it in apparent stress. He looked confused, and the large cheering crowd didn't seem to help. Sam shot up and headed over to him immediately, but I stayed sitting.

Lee draped a large Gryffindor banner over Harry's shoulders and tied it at his throat, and Harry looked so honestly confused I just wanted to hug him.

Eventually Katie put on some music and grabbed my hand, pulling me up to dance with her and getting me laughing again. Lee shoved a pink cupcake into my mouth when Katie spun me out, and I almost completely forgot about the Triwizard Tournament when the bastard attempted to lick the spilt icing sugar from my face.

Then I would catch sight of Harry trying to leave, and I became slightly worried again.

About half an hour later, I left my friends and went over to Harry, who was standing around and looking confused. I draped my arm over his shoulder and pulled him over to the staircase, then nodded for him to escape while he had the chance.

He looked up at me, smiling gratefully, and hurried up the stairs, trying to undo the banner Lee had tied around him as he went.

At that second, I heard Fred yell out from somewhere in the middle of the room "HEY, where's our champion?"

Then Lee, even louder, "And where did Blondie take off to _this time_?"

Rolling my eyes, I followed Harry up the stairs and headed to bed. I didn't need any more of Lee's spit on my face tonight.

* * *

><p>The next few days passed slowly. The school settled down again… somewhat. The Hufflepuffs were all very stand offish towards the Gryffindor's, which was stupid. Fred told me it's because Hufflepuff barely gets any glory and they probably felt like Harry had stolen it (which was still stupid). Speaking of the poor kid, things weren't looking up for him. Ron seemed to have stopped talking to him altogether, and I couldn't figure out why. Hermione and Sam stuck to Harry while trying to remain on friendly terms with Ron at the same time. The Gryffindor's had calmed down on the overenthusiastic support for him, but the rest of the school seemed to be a bit mad at him. He just seemed to have a permanent look of confusion… well, more so than usual. And that's saying something, considering how much of an angsty little kid he usually is.<p>

James was ecstatic. In fact, he was even more than that. He was so excited about being chosen as a Triwizard Champion that he just seemed to always be laughing and grinning now. He wasn't nervous, and he seemed to be the only champion who didn't sort of resent Harry.

"Well, I don't particularly care that Hogwarts has two champions, because Walden is taking home that trophy," he told me in a matter of fact tone one day when we were lounging around in the library.

I don't know whether it was because of his charming personality or gorgeous brown hair and good looks, but James seemed to be idolized as much as Viktor Krum since being chosen as Champion. So, too, though, did Cedric Diggory. I understood that completely. The boy was gorgeous.

And as much as it felt like the world had slowed down and come to a stop on that one weekend when the champions were chosen, life went on. And so did classes.

If anything, I was even less in the mood for Professor Trelawney and her shit than usual.

Currently, she was striding around the classroom, talking in her usual stupid misty voice. "This lesson, we will start off with a bit more crystal ball gazing, as I know some of you were struggling with it at the end of our last lesson, before we move onto our larger body of work for this year, which will be stargazing, and will involve our main text, 'Stargazing into the Future' by Imigo Imago. Begin..."

Fred scowled as he stared down into the misty depths of his crystal ball, muttering something about how Imigo Imago was a stupid name for a stupid man, and Professor Trelawney began to wander around the room.

Ever since my first day here, I have really had an intense dislike for Professor Trelawney. I hated the way she talked in a way that made her sound all mystical, I hated the stuffy classroom that smelled like an overload of incense, and I hated the way she made the simplest of observations into a prediction (for example: in my first class, she said loudly "I have seen that another will join our ranks today…" which was fairly obvious considering Fred had gotten us a seat right in front of where she was standing, and all the teachers had been told Sam and I would be coming).

I let my head fall down onto the desk in front of me, yawning widely. "Predict anything, Angie?"

"I predict cloudy weather… oooooooh…" She said in her best Professor Trelawney imitation, and I snorted.

"And what can you see, my dear?" I heard Trelawney ask, and I picked my head up immediately. She was looking at me expectantly.

"Oh. Er…" I stared into the murky ball, considering what would suffice. I couldn't help but grin as I thought of something interesting. "I see… _death_… coming closer… for someone… in their fourth year at Hogwarts… Oh, I can't make out who it is… I see messy black hair and a tendency to act a bit _angsty_… With a very violent death. Very, very violent."

Trelawney was hanging on my words, looking fascinated. "What else, my dear?"

"I just…" Hmm, can't make it too obvious… "I can't make them out! I'm sure it's a he… and in Gryffindor… He's had very trying times… But soon his suffering will end… in a… competition, perhaps?"

I heard Fred snigger, and I ignored him. For a moment longer, I stared into the crystal ball intently, before sighing and looking up at Trelawney. "I'm sorry. That's all I have."

Trelawney seemed nothing short of delighted. "My dear! I think that you may have the Sight! I haven't seen such talent in one of my classes in quite a long time! You could be part Seer!"

I faked a large grin and nodded.

"Tell me… have you ever had a dream that has come true afterwards?"

No. Never. "Oh yeah… all the time… I get déjà vu a lot."

She was delighted. She spun around and spoke loudly. "Class, see here! Miss Montero has the Sight!"

At this time, the bell went and Trelawney seemed really quite disappointed. "I expect great things from you, dear!"

I waved slightly as I headed out of the door. Fred was laughing.

"Predicting Harry's death. Oh, Merlin, of course she'd eat that up!"

"Don't be jealous just because you didn't think of it first!" I winked, and he laughed even louder.

"Careful, Bree, she expects great things from you," Angelina sniggered. "Think you can bullshit enough stuff until we finish our N.E.W.T.S?"

"Oh, I have no doubt," I grinned. By this time, we had reached the third floor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and as we walked down the corridor, I was suddenly distracted by a flashing green light in my peripheral vision.

Turning, I saw a Slytherin boy wearing a large badge. As I drew closer, I saw it read _'Support Cedric Diggory, the REAL Hogwarts Champion!'_

My good mood immediately dropped. Fred, too, noticed, and approached the second year Slytherin, ripping the badge from his robes harshly before continuing on. In his palms, the badge flashed and changed words. _'Potter Stinks.'_ Not much better.

I felt slightly sick.

"Who would be mean enough to make something like that?" I asked quietly, and Fred stared at me for a second.

"Probably someone like Malfoy."

I didn't respond; I didn't really know how to. Did he mean Draco? I hadn't heard of any other Malfoy's here. He seemed like a sweet enough kid to me. Sure, he's a bit standoffish, and has a harsh protective layer, but I think inside he's actually a sweet kid. Or at least, he seemed that way to me…

My mood had dropped since my success in Divination, and I practically dragged my feet when entering the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. I always tried to see the best in people, and I had tried to convince myself that maybe Moody cursing the students was really done in our best interests, but I knew I was just kidding myself. Moody scared the hell out of me.

I took my seat next to Angelina and it didn't take long for Moody to start the lesson.

"Well, then," he announced gruffly, standing stiffly and glaring at us all. "I believe it's about time to start our study of non-verbal spells. Can anyone tell me what an advantage of a non-verbal spell is?"

Alicia raised her hand, and Moody nodded at her to continue. "You'll have a split second advantage over the enemy when they don't know what spell you've cast."

"Very good. Non-verbal spells are very, very handy things to be able to perform; when you're in a fight, sometimes you can't afford to yell out your plan before you execute it and still hope to come out victorious. Not all wizards can master non-verbal spells, but I think everyone in here should be able to have a fair go at it." He paused momentarily, staring around at us all, before he continued. "Professor McGonagall recommended a few lessons of theoretical work into non-verbal spells before we began, but frankly theory wont get you anywhere in life. So, let's get into it. I want you all to split up into pairs and find a place in the room where you can practice."

Angelina and I stood and followed Fred, George, Lee and Alicia to the back corner of the room. We stood a fair distance apart with our wands up, awaiting further instructions.

"Now," Moody announced from the centre of the room. "I want you to concentrate very, very hard on the spell which you intend to cast, and imagine it happening very vividly. As you continue with this, it will become easier, but for now I want you to concentrate as hard as you can. I want one partner to attempt to jinx the other person without speaking, and for the other person to attempt to repel the jinx equally silently. Start."

And so began the most strenuous and the most pointless lesson of my life.

Twenty minutes into the silent lesson, I glanced around to check on everyone's progress. Moody was making his way in between pairs and he legitimately seemed to be trying not to laugh at how horribly some people were failing.

A Slytherin boy was waving his wand like a madman but clenching his lips together tightly. A girl near the front of the room was shaking from the effort. When I caught sight of Lee, I couldn't help but laugh a bit. He was turning bright purple in the face from screwing his mouth shut to not be tempted to just whisper the spell, like some people were doing. Moody ignored them, knowing what they were doing with his spidey-senses or whatever he has.

At the end of the lesson, he stopped us. "Well, that wasn't very successful, was it?"

He shook his head into the silence that greeted his words. "Hm, we might need a bit longer than I expected to master these. I want you to practice for homework. You can leave; just try not to disappoint me next lesson."

* * *

><p>School got a lot more difficult from that point onwards. We were overloaded with the pressures of learning non verbal spells, because a week after Moody gave us that first lesson, all other subjects began calling for the use of non-verbal spells, too. The homework load seemed to keep piling up (not only because we had entered our sixth year, but because every time I sat down to do the work, two certain red heads and a hyperactive fifth year with the initials K.B. would immediately distract me from my work. Not that I put up much of a fight when this happened, but still) and the teachers were pretty intense about the work. I'm not sure if they were usually like this; they'd at least seemed a lot more laidback when I first met them.<p>

It was a Thursday afternoon and I was lounging around in the grounds in the shade of a large tree by the lake, my books laid out around me as I lay on my stomach, working on my potions essay. Persephone, Callie and James were lounging around me, admiring the view. I had to admit, Hogwarts had some beautiful scenery around it.

"I like Hogwarts," Callie said decidedly, flipping her long brown hair over her shoulder. "It's not as horrible as I thought it would be. And I'm glad it's nice, I couldn't take it if you were stuck in some creepy, dinghy old place."

"Yeah, I like it a lot more than I thought I would," I replied, looking up. "And I like the fact that you're all here, of course."

"And I like that we're here for the Triwizard Tournament!" Persephone cried. James checked his watch.

"Speaking of the Triwizard Tournament," he said, standing up and dusting himself off. "I have champion-like places to be right now."

"Like where?" Callie sniggered.

"Like a photo shoot for the Daily Prophet. My stardom is rising, ladies! This is my big break!" He winked at us, before turning to leave. "I'll see you later, you bunch of whores!"

Well, that's James for you. The boy always has been comfortable in front of the camera.

"Such an overdramatic fellow," Persephone muttered.

Callie had perked up a bit when the Tournament was mentioned, as she usually did. That was what I loved about Callie; she had no room for unhappiness about not being chosen as the Walden Champion (like some of the Beauxbatons students had been), she was too busy being excited for James.

"This is so exciting!" She cried, and in that moment, I knew I wouldn't be getting any more of this Potions essay done that afternoon. "I never imagined we'd get to witness the Triwizard Tournament being reinstated! I mean, how cool is it?"

"It's really exciting," Persephone agreed, nodding. "I mean, when else would I get the opportunity to meet Viktor Krum?"

Of course.

Callie rolled her eyes. "And then see him get his butt kicked by James?"

"What do you think the first task will be?" I wondered aloud.

"Something insanely dangerous to kick the Tournament off with a bang," Persephone said.

"Hm, I think they already succeeded in that," Callie quipped, pursing her lips, and I frowned.

"I'm worried for Harry," I said honestly. "The kid is practically having an anxiety attack every time I see him."

Persephone waved her hand, unconcerned, as she said, "Oh, he'll be fine! If he didn't want to be in the Tournament, he probably shouldn't have gone to all the trouble to get over the age line and put his name in!"

"He says he didn't put his name in," I said gently, "and I think I believe him."

"I heard him saying that the other day, actually," Callie said, "But I thought it was just because he didn't want to get into trouble."

"But he's _not_ in trouble," Persephone said firmly. "He's doing something dozens of people have been praying they'd be able to do for months!"

"But he hasn't been praying! That kid has more problems than Oprah can fix!"

"And that's saying something," Callie nodded, agreeing with me.

There was a small pause.

"I don't think you need to worry," Callie told me gently, laying her hand over mine. "There's a lot more safety precautions this time around."

And one of them was an age line. Look how well that worked out.

* * *

><p>A few days later, the article James had been telling us about was published. Only, I'm not sure it's really what he expected.<p>

It was more or less a biography of Harry Potter than a report on the Tournament.

Callie whistled when she picked up the paper. "James is gonna be _pissed_."

The top half of the front page was a photo of Harry, and the article began on the bottom half of the page, continuing on pages two, six and seven. James, Cedric, Viktor and Fleur's names were misspelled, and squashed into the very last sentence. James had refused to acknowledge the article in any way, but at breakfast I did see him eyeing up a _'Potter Stinks'_ badge longingly.

It was nearing one o'clock in the morning, and Fred, George and I were still in the common room. Once again, I had my Potions essay out, and once again, I knew I likely wouldn't be getting anywhere with it. I was far too busy reading the fateful article for the first time.

'_I suppose I get my strength from my parents, I know they'd be proud of me if they could see me now… yes, sometimes at night I still cry over them, I'm not ashamed to admit it…'_

"OH MERLIN! Oh, _no_, Harry!" I cried.

Fred didn't look up from the book he was consulting for his essay. "If you keep making noises, I'm kicking you out of the common room."

"He still cries over his parents! I had no idea! Oh, that poor boy!" It was one of the saddest things I'd ever read. I wanted to run up to his dormitory, hug him, and never stop hugging him.

"You know, I don't think that's necessarily true," George said, ignoring his brother hissing at him _'don't encourage her!'_ "He's stayed with us for a while over the holidays, I never saw him crying for no apparent reason. He didn't seem any more unhappy than usual."

"Maybe you just weren't looking hard enough," I huffed, and Fred rolled his eyes. This time, I read the article out loud, if just to irritate him.

'_Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl.'_

"What?" Fred shot forward, grabbing the paper.

"Oh, well that's not true," I said, furrowing my eyebrows. "Hermione and Ron are clearly in love. Who's this Colin Creevey boy?"

George shot me a strange look, before answering. "He's in his second year, fucking weird little kid."

Hm. This reporter probably needs to get better resources.

'_When asked if he's nervous about being the so called 'under dog' in the Tournament because of his age, Harry laughs. Harry, along with his girlfriend Hermione, is one of the top students in the school, and believes himself thoroughly prepared for anything that comes his way. He is truly an inspiring boy.'_

"That's not such a bad article!" I said, looking up after I finished.

"That's a fucking ridiculous article, Bree. It's supposed to be about the Tournament, not just Harry Potter." Fred told me, shaking his head. "This is going to make Ron even worse, you know."

"Why is he so mad?" I asked. I'd been wondering about that for a while.

George shrugged. "Hermione told us the real reason; he's jealous of the kid. I mean, something happens ever year to kind of make him more and more famous… she said she thinks Ron just got a bit tired of competing with his best mate. They'll make up eventually, I think..."

I stayed quiet for a moment, mulling it over. "That's… sad."

"Well," Fred announced after a small pause, jumping to his feet, suddenly excited. "That's nothing a little adventure wont fix!"

George grinned and sprang to his feet, but I was suspicious. "What kind of adventure?"

"Oh, relax, Breezy, nothing _too_ life threatening!" Fred waggled his fingers to encourage me to take his hand, but I still didn't. Eventually he sighed and flopped his hand back down to his side, looking defeated.

Victorious, I looked back down at my paper.

And then, suddenly, Fred had grabbed my upper arms, pulling to my feet and, ignoring my loud squeals of protest, bent down and flipped me over his shoulders, carrying me towards the portrait hole.

"Fred! George!" I hissed, hitting his back incessantly. "This is _not_ okay! I feel indecently exposed! This is harassment! PUT ME DOWN, FRED!"

"If I do, will you shut up?"

"Maybe!"

By this time, we'd reached the end of the sixth floor corridor, and he bent down to place me back on my feet. When he did, I punched him in the arm. He didn't even bother to pretend it hurt.

"Live on the wild side, Bree!" George cried, throwing his arms up. "You'll be fine; we know this school upside down."

Fred threw himself at the wall, leaning his back against it and flattening his hands on the wall beside him. He slid slowly to the end of the Hall and glanced around the corner, checking that it was indeed empty before diving around the corner and ducking down to hide behind the railing, flattening himself to the floor.

All his super spy techniques to go hidden were made unnecessary by the loud laughter it incited from me, and when he tried to shoot me a glare, even he couldn't help but grin at himself.

"So you wander the school at night regularly, or…?" I asked, following Fred as he ducked behind a tapestry and into a dimly lit hidden passageway.

"Of course, it makes life interesting," George said, grinning.

It was then that I paused to take in my surroundings. If I ever thought Hogwarts was creepy during the day, it's nothing compared to looking at it at night. Shadows jumped out of everywhere I looked, shrouding everything in darkness. The knights of armor were dark, their faces only just visible, and I jumped a bit closer to the boys. Getting lost during the day was bad enough, but during the night would just cause me to be permanently terrified. Suddenly, I was struck by how cold it was, even in my jeans and Toby's baggy jumper I stole nearly two years ago. It was his favorite one, and he never realized I had it.

I'm just a master of deception, I guess.

Or not really. He just never asked me.

Anyway, Fred and George led me down past the Entrance Hall and into a side corridor, where we eventually came to a complete dead end. There was nothing ahead of us but a large painting of a bowl of fruit.

It wasn't even a pretty bowl of fruit.

I was about to voice my opinion on their stupid adventure, when Fred leant forwards and tickled the pear in the bowl. The pear let out a high, girlish giggle, and the portrait swung open.

Fred hoisted himself up through the small square space the portrait had just revealed, George following afterwards. George, ever the gentleman, reached back through and took my hand, helping me to climb out.

They had led me to a large room, almost as big as the Great Hall. It was very warm in there and the room was lit up by a large fireplace at the end of the room. There were four long tables, like the four House tables.

"Welcome to the kitchen, Breezy!" Fred announced with a large grin, motioning around the room.

It was then that I caught sight of the dozens of House Elves scurrying around. A few had rushed up to us, grinning delightedly.

"May we help you, misters and missus?" One of the house elves asked, her voice high and squeaky, as she looked at us expectantly with a friendly smile.

"The usual, Mr. Weasley?" Another asked, and I couldn't help but laugh a bit.

George shook his head. "Do you have any leftovers from dinner?"

About eight of them ran off at once, eager to fulfill our wishes.

"Not very much!" Fred called, and they waved him off, ignoring him.

We headed to the Gryffindor table out of habit and took a seat at the end.

"So how'd you find this place?" And every other hidden area and secret passageway in the school, for that matter, because it seems like they actually know all of them.

"Secret ways," Fred said mysteriously, as the elves brought us over several plates of food. Best service I've ever gotten, if it wouldn't offend them so much, I'd leave a tip.

Loading my plate up with chocolate cake leftover from dessert, I stared around the room curiously. A few elves were waiting, as though for me to say something, so I smiled and thanked them. They immediately bowed their heads and scurried off.

"So these are the ones that Hermione is working so hard to… er… liberate?" I asked tentatively.

Fred snorted. "She's too overenthusiastic about this; the House Elves would just be offended by her trying to liberate them."

"Except Dobby," George said through a mouth full of mashed potatoes.

"What's a Dobby?" I asked loudly, and Fred shook his head a little too late, for at that moment an elf popped up from next to my elbow.

"Missus called?' He squeaked, smiling. He was wearing a bright red and white beanie and what had to be over ten pairs of socks on his feet. He had floppy ears, and the biggest, most hazy eyes I had ever seen in my life.

Oh. That's a Dobby.

I turned in my seat and extended a hand for him to shake, which he did enthusiastically. "I'm Bree, Dobby, and I just wanted to meet you!"

His ears perked up from the holes for them in his beanie (I wonder where he got that, it's cute) and his eyes actually seemed to light up. "It's nice to meet you, miss! Did you want me to get you anything?"

"Just some pumpkin juice, and then we'll be off, thanks Dobby," George told him, and I winced.

"Can I just get some water?"

Dobby looked so happy to have a job to do that I thought he might actually cry. The other elves seemed to disapprove of him a bit, but that much enthusiasm was just bloody endearing.

"What's wrong with pumpkin juice?" George asked curiously.

"I've never been a fan; I mean… its pumpkin. In juice form. That's creepy."

Fred's eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared into his scruffy hair. "Americans…" he muttered, probably only half joking.

A glance at my watch told me it was near 2:30am, and we set off back to the common room soon after. I waved goodbye to Dobby, and couldn't help but grin at his enthusiasm.

My face fell to a frown when we got back to the common room, however. I knew I wasn't going to get any more of that damn essay done.

* * *

><p><strong>You all better love me, I have so much schoolwork to do but I can't actually seem to stop writing this story! I hope you all enjoyed. Thankyou to everyone who favourited and alerted and all that jazz! Leave me a review, they make me smile! <strong>


	7. I've killed Cedric Diggory!

"Bree… wake up, doll…"

"mmhmm."

"Bree, you have to wake up now… we've got a big day ahead!"

"Alicia, you sound like a damn mother…"

I snuggled deeper into my pillow and groaned, slowly feeling the haze of sleep start to leave me.

And suddenly, a heavy weight landed on top of me and started thrashing around wildly. "BREE WAKE UP ITS HOGSMEADE WEEKEND AND YOU HAVE TO GET UP RIGHT NOW!" Came a loud screech from above me. Shocked and suddenly very much awake, I rolled over and jumped up in fright, successfully rolling the weight off of me, to hear a large thud when whatever was on me hit the ground very hard.

I was still breathing heavily from the fright and confusion of what had just happened, but when I looked down what I saw didn't surprise me at all.

Katie Bell was sprawled out on the floor, laughing hysterically and clutching at my bed sheet. Angelina from across the room was biting her lip, trying to hide a grin. Alicia shrugged and muttered "effective."

"You didn't have to knock me off of you!" Katie giggled, pushing her dark hair out of her face and springing up from the ground. The energy this girl has in the morning astounds me.

With a frustrated groan I fell back down onto the bed and pulled my pillow over my face. Katie was quick to pull it off and jump back onto the bed beside me. "Uh-uh, Breezy! You need to get up! The boys are waiting in the common room so we can go to Hogsmeade! It's an exciting day, so up, up, up!"

I got up and headed for the bathroom, but not before pushing her back to the floor first. She just giggled some more, the crazy bitch.

Twenty minutes later, I emerged from the bathroom all lovely and refreshed, ready for the day. Katie was the only one still in the room, chewing some gum and lounging back on my bed, flipping through the latest copy of Witch Weekly.

"About time!" She drawled, throwing the magazine aside. "You know, you're a sour puss in the mornings."

"It's a Saturday, I deserve some sleep!" I defended.

"Sleep is for the weak," she said, rolling her eyes, "and besides, today's your first ever Hogsmeade visit!"

I had gathered my bag together and followed her out of the dormitory door, into the winding staircase beyond. "What's a Hogsmeade?"

She spun around so fast I nearly walked right into her. "Bree! Hogsmeade is the village near the school, and it's absolutely brilliant! There is everything you could ever imagine in your dizziest daydreams!"

I raised my eyebrows, severely doubting her explanation.

Katie rolled her eyes and spun around to continue walking. "Well, maybe not, but it's still pretty cool. You'll see."

Fred, George, Lee, Alicia, Angelina, and little Ronald were all sitting around the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall waiting for us. When we approached, Lee actually started applauding our arrival, until Angelina slapped him upside the head. Fred groaned as he shuffled sideways for Katie and I to sit in between him and his brother.

"Merlin, you're slow," Fred cried, "I mean, I get that girls take a while to get ready, but come on! I thought Angelina was slow, but_ you_, my friend, are _slow_!"

Rolling my eyes, I thanked him and piled my plate up with bacon. Jeez, it's only like 9:00, I really don't understand what everyone's problem is.

So we all ate breakfast and everyone told me about the joys of Hogsmeade, which I learnt is the only all wizarding village in Britain (funny, America has dozens). I also learnt that Ron must still be pissed off with our dear little boy-who-lived, because he decided to tag along with his brothers for the day. Though they'd never admit it, the twins were very family oriented, and they loved their brother, so they didn't push him to talk; they just nodded and let him come to the village with us.

Around half an hour later, Katie grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my seat, too excited to wait any longer. She led the way out of the school and down the path near Hagrid's house, until we left the boundaries of the school and headed along a long path to the wizarding village.

"Oh, I can't wait to show you everything!" Katie cried cheerily. Little was I to know that she literally meant that she would show me every single thing in the damn village.

I had to admit that Hogsmeade wasn't horrible. It was actually really quite lovely, with really friendly people around the town. Alicia took me out to a deserted area where you could see what she called the Shrieking Shack (Ron must've been really scared, he kept looking away from the shack and wandering around when we were there), Lee took me to the owlery so he could buy his Mom a birthday present (it was awesome, there were owls everywhere), Katie led me straight to the most brilliant store I'd ever seen in my life: The sweet shop. I had a huge sweet tooth, and the place seemed to have everything I could've ever dreamed of! I bought a couple of bags of treats before Fred and George dragged me out of the store (Ron sniggered a little bit and followed behind, the little prick) and to where they really wanted to be: Zonko's joke shop.

Needless to say, I was not surprised that this was their favorite store.

Fred was nearly bouncing up and down in his excitement. "You're going to love this, Bree!"

Zonko's was ridiculously busy and filled with chatter and laughter. There were dozens of whirring contraptions everywhere and pink and blue bubbles floating around the store. I was instantly enthralled.

"Welcome to our version of Heaven," George grinned. "You know, this is going to be Fred and I one day."

"What, a bored looking dwarf with no people skills?" I asked, referring to the man working behind the counter, frowning at all the laughing people around him.

Fred sighed dramatically, and Ron laughed. "They want to run their own joke shop."

I looked at the twins over my shoulder as we made our way down a relatively empty row of products. Running a joke shop would be perfect for them. "Have you got any products in mind?"

George scoffed. "Of course, Blondie."

"However, a good businessman never reveals his secrets," Fred finished for his brother.

Ron leant down and whispered "If the loud bangs and foul smell coming from their room all holidays was any indication, then they're doing okay."

Grinning, I ducked into another aisle, followed by the three Weasley's. "Maybe someday I can work in your joke shop?"

"I supposed you could try out the products for us…" Fred suggested, picking up a colorful box and showing it to his brother.

Seeing Ron frantically shaking his head from behind them, I frowned. "Well, that sounds tempting, but _maybe_ not…"

George winced. "Probably for the best."

We stayed in Zonko's for a while longer while I polished off my first bag of treats and Fred and George 'restocked,' and then Ron suggested we go to the Three Broomsticks. I soon found that this was a warm, busy pub full of some of the strangest people I'd ever laid eyes on. It was mostly full of Hogwarts students enjoying the day out of the castle, but I spotted some more dwarves, and what I'm pretty sure was a hag.

The four of us took a seat around a table in the corner of the room. I saw Hermione and Sam out of the corner of my eye, sitting by themselves. I vaguely wondered where Harry was and glanced to Ron to see if he'd seen them. He was looking at the two with a crease between his eyes.

"Look who I found!"

Looking up, I saw Lee standing before us and grinning, his arms draped around Callie and Persephone. Callie was holding a tray of drinks, and she passed them around to each person at the table.

"Our old bat of a headmistress let us out to roam for the day!" Persephone giggled, and Lee looked at me, indicated towards the blonde with his head and winked at me.

Only when Callie plopped down next to me did I realize what she was wearing. A bright power rangers t-shirt.

She pointed a finger to me and glared at my growing smile. "Shut the fuck up, okay, Bree? The Power Rangers rule."

Shaking my head, I muttered "I wasn't even going to say anything." There was a small pause when Callie turned back to the other occupants of the table and took a sip of her drink. "GO GO POWER RANGERS!" I yelled loudly, making everyone around me jump and Callie choke on her drink, spitting half of it back into her cup. Lee immediately started whacking her on the back and she spluttered for a moment before glaring up at me. Fred, George, and Ron stared at me in total confusion as I laughed to myself.

"You're crazy, Bree!" She coughed into her drink, trying unsuccessfully not to laugh and she elbowed me very hard in the side.

"Only for you, baby," I winked taking a swig of butterbeer. "What, you aren't gonna yell 'it's morphing time' and turn into one of them?" Fred, George and Ron just looked more and more confused as the conversation progressed.

"The first task is soon," Lee said, obviously trying to steer the conversation back to a more normal territory.

"We've been thinking," Fred said. "Do you think we could make some money taking bets on what's going to happen?"

"A bit insensitive, but fantastic money making scheme," George nodded, grinning.

"What types of bets?" Persephone asked, curiously.

Fred and George glanced at each other.

"Well," George said. "Who'll get the highest mark… the lowest mark…"

"Who'll die," Fred added, and my head shot up.

"Nobody is going to _die_!" I said loudly, glaring at them both. "They've put safety measures in place."

Fred winced slightly and nodded as I glanced back over to where Hermione and Sam were sitting. Moody and Hagrid were standing around them, and Moody seemed to be leaning into the empty place between the two fourth years and speaking... I knew he was crazy. I turned back around to my friends, and caught Ron staring at them all.

* * *

><p>It felt like almost no time had passed before it was time for the First Task, and I had to admit that despite a bit of worrying, I was finding it difficult not to be excited. All four schools were buzzing with talk of the Tournament, and I had to admit it was kind of cool that I was witnessing something that hadn't been held in over a hundred years.<p>

Katie, being what had to be the most easily excited and enthusiastic person on the planet, and also the most cheerful and active in the morning, woke me up at about 7am in her excitement. Class wasn't until 8am, and the task wasn't until 1pm. Fantastic.

Everyone in the Hall was staring at the champions over breakfast. Not that I can judge, because I was staring just as hard. Harry looked positively panicked, but James seemed fine.

"Let's just I'm fairly well prepared," he said when I asked him why he was so cheery, and winked like he just revealed some big secret we now shared. Idiot.

Classes seemed to drag by even more than usual because frankly all of us were just too anxious for the first task.

"What do you think the task will be?" Victoria asked, as we all sat in the dungeons slaving away over our cauldrons (setting a dangerous potion when nobody is paying enough attention to correctly make it made me think that maybe Snape isn't the best teacher in the world).

"It'll be something totally unexpected," Lee said, nodding as though he already knew what the task was. "I reckon for the third task they'll have to fight each other to the death."

Ruby's head shot up from where she was reading Witch Weekly over her potions textbook. "Do you really think so?"

"I think the main idea of the Tournament is to keep all the contestants alive… so _no_, I don't think so," Angelina said, raising her eyebrows scathingly at Lee.

The ideas after that got a lot more ridiculous, so I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I headed to the one on the fifth floor to waste a bit more time, and after I was finished up, I pushed open the door to leave the bathroom, and it promptly banged straight into something hard, flew back and hit me right in the face.

My hand flew to my nose, which took the brunt of the hit, and I let out a cry of pain as I felt liquid start to leak from my nose. One glance at my hand told me it was blood, and I immediately became a bit queasy.

However, my queasiness was replaced with sheer horror when I looked down and realized that the person who I had hit had been propelled back onto the ground from the force of the door, and that the person I had hit was Cedric Diggory.

Oh Merlin, I've wounded the Hogwarts school champion an hour before he was due to compete! What if they made me compete in his place in return for what I've done? What if I gave him a concussion and he ends up dying because of what I did?

I'VE KILLED CEDRIC FUCKING DIGGORY!

He groaned and his hand shot up to his forehead, and I dropped down immediately to assess the damage, one hand still at my nose. Cedric opened his eyes and winced slightly, but then his eyes just widened and he sat up straight when he saw my face; maybe it was from the horror in my eyes or all the blood on my face.

…It was probably the blood, now I think of it.

"Oh, whoa, never a dull moment since I met you, Bree…" He immediately laughed to himself and picked up his wand, conjuring a tissue and bringing it up to my nose to blot at the blood there. I took the tissue from him quickly, because frankly, it was a lovely gesture, but I don't think any girl would want the cutest boy in seventh year getting their nose blood all over his hands.

I'm so classy.

"I'm so, so, so sorry, Cedric!" I cried, my voice muffled because of the tissue covering the bottom half of my face. "Are you hurt at all?"

He smiled and shook his head, pushing himself to his feet and then reaching down to pull me up by the upper arms… because both my hands were covered in blood.

"Bree, you're very sweet, but I really think you hurt yourself more than you hurt me," he said, clearly trying to hide a laugh. "Come on, I'll take you to the Hospital Wing."

Oh, great, another trip to the Hospital Wing. I'm becoming such a regular there. Madam Pomfrey is going to think I'm a masochistic weirdo.

Cedric bent down and picked up his bag and wand, before conjuring a handful of tissues and handing them to me.

Quickly taking them, I muttered a thanks while trying to use the tissues to hide the massive blush on my face. By his grin, I could tell he saw it. Damn.

"You know, for such a tiny girl, you have a strange amount of strength," Cedric joked, and I tried to laugh, but it really came out as a bit of a not amused grumble because to be honest I was still worried I'd injured him for the Tournament. And because my foot can't stay out of my mouth for very long periods of time, I said that out loud.

His face immediately fell and he ran his hand through his hair. "Oh, that's very nice of you, Bree, but I promise I'll be fine."

Well, too late to back out now. "Do you think you're prepared?" I asked, my voice thick.

He nodded, looking anywhere but at me. But he kept his hand on my elbow the entire time we walked, so that was a good sign. "Well, I did sign up for this, I guess."

"I'd be worried if you weren't nervous, to be honest," I said.

Finally, a small smile came to his face and he looked back at me. "It's a good thing you didn't end up our champion. The dra-" he paused before continuing, "-whatever you'd be facing in the first task would have to compete with your own clumsiness to hurt you."

"Oh, har har," I faked a laugh and glared at him through the tissues around my face, now soaked with blood. We talked about much more lighthearted topics for the rest of the short walk, and Cedric seemed a lot more cheerful by the time we reached the Hospital Wing. He turned to me just before we reached the doors.

"You know, we end up banging into each other a fair bit, and I'd like if next time we both came away unscathed. So maybe if we plan ahead we can avoid that."

I couldn't help but laugh at his statement. "Sounds good to me. Good luck later, Cedric… and thanks for walking me here."

"Thank you. And it was no problem… I had to make sure you got to the Hospital Wing without hurting yourself further."

Merlin, he sounds like George now.

He waved slightly and turned to go, and I turned to walk into the Hospital Wing, only just now noticing that my nosebleed had slowed considerably, but noticing the throbbing headache I now had. Pushing open the door, Madam Pomfrey immediately looked up from whatever she was doing.

"Back again so soon? Miss Montero, you really are a hazard!"

Sigh.

* * *

><p>I was originally intending to keep the whole incident a secret, but because of my fantastic luck, Katie had appeared at the Hospital Wing not long after I did, sporting a broken thumb from a wild Care of Magical Creatures class. Katie had immediately forgotten her sore thumb and broken down laughing at my expense when she overheard Madam Pomfrey saying how I'd hurt myself.<p>

As soon as we'd entered the Great Hall, Katie had delighted in recounting the tale, much to the amusement of my friends.

"You hit Cedric Diggory with a door?" Lee asked, sniggering. "Good job."

It was soon time to head out to the first task, so we put our bags back up in the dormitory, changed out of our uniforms (Katie emerged from her dorm room with Victoria; Katie sported all red with gold and red stripes on her cheeks for Harry, and Victoria sported black and gold for Cedric. When Angelina raised her eyebrows in question, Victoria shrugged and said "he's totally cute," as though that was all that mattered), and headed out into the grounds. There were signs directing us around the Forbidden Forest, and soon we reached a huge arena like structure. It was ridiculously packed, what with people from four separate schools pushing to get good seats, but everyone managed to fit in. The actual arena that the tasks would take place in was enormous, barren, dirty and rocky. Fred and George pushed us through the crowds so we were some of the first people in, and then reached into their bags (I wondered why they'd brought those) and pulled out a box with a string to go around their necks. It was a portable betting tab.

George shot us a wink, and then he and his brother moved off down the row, yelling "PLACE YOUR BETS HERE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! STEP RIGHT UP AND PLACE YOUR BETS!"

Angelina scoffed, then smiled and raised her hand, waving over someone from behind me. Turning, I saw that it was Ben, Persephone, Delilah and Callie. Ben wrapped an arm around my shoulder and gave me a hug, as Callie grinned and said "Well, James' confidence has not wavered at all yet."

"I thought he would've cried by now, to be honest," Ben said, shrugging.

Katie was practically bouncing in her excitement. "This is so awesome! What do you think is going to happen?" she leant over the railing and stared down into the arena, as though looking for some kind of hint as to what was coming. When the tiny girl leaned a bit too far out and nearly tipped right over the edge, Angelina grabbed the back of her jeans and pulled her back quickly.

Katie made a noise of shock before raising her eyebrows at Angelina while fixing her jeans. "If you wanted to get into my pants, you'd need to at least buy me dinner first."

"Does that extend to me, too?" Lee quipped, grinning wolfishly.

The grin fell from his face when suddenly a terrifying roar rang throughout the stadium, and I jumped in surprise. Lee, too, let out a girlish squeal and jumped behind Katie. There were two tents facing each other at opposite ends of the arena, and the first now had its door flaps pulled to the side. A cage door was slid open, and a giant, scaly, yellow dragon came crawling out, glaring and roaring louder.

My mouth had dropped open by now, and Katie breathed "Merlin…"

The shocked silence in the stadium was broken by Lee stepping out from behind Katie and yelling loudly "THIS IS GONNA BE SO AWSOME!"

Cheers erupted from the crowd at this announcement, and the dragon just glared around more harshly, whipping its spiked tail around in agitation.

Well, I'm even more relieved I didn't kill Cedric this morning. There's no way I could take on that thing.

Fred and George had reappeared at my side, George shooting me a large grin when I caught his eye. "We're gonna be loaded by the end of the tournament," he said appreciatively, giving his box a little shake. Sure enough, I could hear coins rattling around in there.

"Smart moneys on Krum to survive this," Fred told us, grinning widely. I believed him, because all around me there was chanting of names from the crowd, and it seemed that even people from other schools were chanting for the Bulgarian champion. Lee had even produced a banner from his bag, holding it up proudly, and I rolled my eyes. It seemed his unnatural crush on Viktor Krum was back. I saw Sam, Hermione and Ron on the other side of the stadium, proudly sporting Gryffindor colors, and I couldn't help but smile.

"Your attention, please?" Dumbledore's voice filled the stadium, coming from where he sat in the covered teachers and visitors area of the stadium. "This is an exciting day for all of us." At this, the dragon in front of us let out a loud roar, shooting a burst of flame towards a cluster of boulders. Excited, I cheered along with everyone else in the stadium. "Each of the three tasks include a considerable amount of danger. The aim of this task is to defeat the dragon and collect the golden egg that she is protecting. For this egg holds a clue without which the champions can not hope to proceed to the next task. Points will be awarded for speed, agility, accurate spell casting based on how well the spell works in your favor, and intelligence. Please remain in your seats at all times, and above all else, please enjoy yourselves.

A few moments later, a new voice filled the stadium. Immediately, everybody fell silent. "Well, well, well, whose ready for a good show then? Ha, ha!" Ludo Bagman called enthusiastically. He had to wait for the cheers to fade before he continued. "It gives me great pleasure to welcome our first contestant to the field, Hogwarts champion Cedric Diggory!"

I cheered loudly, and even Fred, George, and Lee, who had never been particularly fond of Cedric, gave a bit of scattered applause, when Cedric stepped out of the tent and stared up at the dragon with a look of determination on his face.

Cedric seemed to know exactly what he was doing immediately, though the sight of the huge dragon unnerved him. It was understandable, because the angry dragon immediately let out a roar and a burst of fire and he only just managed to evade the flames. He stalled for a while, throwing curses at the beast, seemingly trying to distract it, as Bagman commentated.

"COME ON DIGGORY GET ON WITH IT!" Lee yelled out, and Katie whacked him on the arm.

"I'd like to see you fight off a dragon, Jordan!"

Gasps erupted from around us as Bagman shouted "Oooooooh, narrow miss there, very narrow!"

Katie spun around, looking horrified at having missed anything.

Cedric pointed his wand at nearby boulder like he was holding a sword, and before our eyes the rock turned into a golden Labrador dog. The dog went running off towards the dragon, and Cedric bolted in the opposite direction. The dragon reared up towards the Labrador as Cedric skirted behind boulders, and I held my breath as he got closer to the Golden Egg. However, the dragon suddenly caught sight of him out of its peripheral vision, and changed its mind; it left the Labrador and turned around, letting out a loud roar and shooting flame at Cedric. Cedric seemed to jump behind a nearby boulder just in time, but when I looked closer, I realized that his pant leg was on fire and he was very heavily leaning on his other leg.

Bagman groaned along with the rest of the crowd. "_Clever _move- pity it didn't work!"

Cedric hid behind one of the other boulders and conjured another Labrador, but this one looked rabid. It ran around the other side of the dragon and charged at the huge beast, and Cedric used this opportunity to jump out from behind the boulder and grab the Golden Egg.

A huge cheer erupted in the stadium, as Bagman cried "Oh well done, Mr. Diggory, well done!"

The cheering continued as Cedric left the field, waving and smiling, and the dragon keepers came out to lead the beast away as the judges held up their marks on the other side of the arena. He'd managed to score quite well. Moments later, a green dragon was released into the arena, panting fire angrily, and Bagman announced cheerily "One down, four to go! Miss Delacour, if you please!"

Fleur emerged looking as radiant as ever, but I have to say her performance was probably the weakest one. She stood her ground and immediately began chanting a charm to herself, ignoring the crowd completely, and waving her wand in the direction of the dragon. The dragon stopped its angry panting and tilted its head to the side, as though considering her, before its head fell to the side and its eyes fell shut.

"This is a bit of an anticlimax, isn't it?" Angelina muttered, but just then the dragon let out a loud snore and a burst of flame shot from its nostrils, setting Fleur's skirt on fire. Angelina's hand shot to her mouth as she tried not to laugh, but Katie and Lee weren't that polite.

I think Fleur would gain points from the judges by how calm she stayed though; she just jumped back a bit and immediately extinguished the fire using her wand. Or at least, I doubt I would've thought of doing that so quickly. But I always seem to forget I have magic when I get into a bad situation. She sprinted forwards, as though worried the dragon might let out another snore, and grabbed the egg, holding it up triumphantly when the crowd let out a loud cheer. The judges gave their scores as she left the arena, and Cedric's mark was still above hers.

"And here comes Mr. Krum!" Bagman shouted a moment later, after a bright blue dragon had been led into the enclosure.

Lee cheered louder than he had so far, and Katie shook her head, rolling her eyes at me.

Viktor completely ignored everyone else in the stadium and immediately dived under the cover of a boulder. This dragon was clearly not the most intelligent, because it just stared around, as though wondering where he went. Viktor crept around the enclosure, trying to stay covered as he got as close as possible to the dragon. This went on for a few moments, and even Lee deflated a bit at how unexciting it all was.

"What the bloody hell is he doing?" Fred muttered, leaning over the railing for a better look.

"Careful… careful…" Bagman said, and Viktor jumped out from the boulder suddenly, throwing a curse at the dragon which hit it directly in the eye. "Oh, very daring!"

The dragon let out a high pitched shriek which was so horrible I swear it nearly burst a few eardrums, and stumbled around in pain. Unfortunately, while it stumbled, it squashed a few of the real eggs surrounding the golden egg, but Viktor easily avoided the dragon and grabbed hold of the golden egg, immediately darting away from the dragon and back to safety.

"YES! HE'S GOT IT!" Bagman yelled, as we all cheered loudly. Krum left the arena and the dragon was eventually calmed enough to be led away, and another green dragon was released into the arena. The judges gave their marks, and Krum scored the highest of all of the competitors so far.

"Next up we have James Wilson!" Bagman announced, and Callie immediately squealed loudly, jumping up and down and snatching Delilah's banner from her, waving it around madly.

James walked out looking as calm as ever, immediately spotting us by following Callie's continued squealing and shooting us a wink and a wave, as overly confident as ever. It was almost like the dragon noticed the attitude and didn't like it, because it let out a roar and shot a large burst of flame at him, which he only narrowly avoided.

James glared at the dragon, as though seriously personally offended. The dragon growled and took a step towards him, and James motioned for it to come closer. The dragon glanced worriedly back at its eggs, but when James let out a loud whistle and waved again, the dragon decided it wanted to get rid of him more than to stay close to its eggs. When it was mid way of the distance between James and the eggs, he raised his wand and shot water at the dragons legs, following up by freezing it rapidly so that ice formed, keeping the dragon from moving its legs. It looked down, confused, and James took the opportunity to sprint away from the dragon and towards the eggs.

The dragon looked up, furious and let out a loud roar, shooting fire at James, which he again narrowly avoided to a simultaneous gasp from the crowd. He was closer to the eggs now, and the dragon roared again and began flapping its wings and attempting to stomp its feet out of the ice trapping them there. It succeeded and immediately took a lunge towards James, which he avoided by diving behind a boulder. I groaned; he'd been so close to the eggs.

This time he looked even more determined, and instead of freezing its legs to the ground, James aimed for its mouth, icing it shut so it could no longer let out any fire. While the dragon was distracted clawing at its mouth in confusion, James took a dive towards the eggs and narrowly managed to grab the golden egg before the dragon was able to break free of the ice and shoot flames at him. He already had the egg, but as he made to run back behind a boulder, the dragons flames hit him just beneath the knees. He let out a yell and fell behind the boulders as the dragon was detained, and I screamed along with everyone else in the stadium as James limped to his feet and waved at the crowd, flashing his pearly white teeth in a triumphant grin. The judges gave his marks and Callie let out a loud whistle when he scored second highest so far.

He eventually stopped being a fame whore and left the arena, and that just left us with Harry the only contestant to go. I glanced over at Sam, and although he was smiling at James' victory, he glanced at Hermione and Ron worriedly.

Another dragon was led out into the arena, and I heard Katie gasp from beside me. This dragon was somehow different to the rest. It was a fiery red color with a rounded tail covered in spikes pointing every direction. Its head, too, was covered in spikes, and this dragon seemed a lot angrier than the others. It was already huffing out fire blasts and nothing had even happened yet.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Harry slowly enter the enclosure, taking a moment to stare around as the crowd fell silent. The dragon seemed to be just out of his line of vision, so he took a few steps forwards when the dragon suddenly let out an angry screech and flew into the air, bringing its tail down quickly, missing where Harry stood by inches. The boy dived sideways and scrambled to his feet, running behind a row of boulders for some kind of protection.

I gasped along with the rest of the crowd, and Fred, with a small grin, nudged George, who raised his binoculars for a better look. Bagman cried over the loudspeaker "Oh, young Mr. Potter is off to a bit of a rough start!"

Harry scrambled on the uneven surface of the rocks, trying to pull himself to some form of safety, but the dragon flew over him with another roar, bringing its tail down hard onto the rocky surface. Harry fell back in surprise, and the dragon brought its tail around again, this time hitting Harry and lifting him off of his feet and propelling him into the air. I let out a gasp and grabbed onto George's wrist with one hand and the railing with the other. George glanced away from the arena in surprise and down at my hand on his arm, but I didn't pay attention to his reaction, as Harry scrambled on the rock surface and finally made it to some form of protection behind a large wall of rock.

I don't think I've ever been more worried in my life. I don't do well under pressure, but this is even worse than the nervous wreck I became before the OWL's last year.

"YOUR WAND, HARRY!" I heard Hermione scream from across the arena. "YOUR WAND!"

Harry raised his wand into the air and yelled a spell that I couldn't hear. It didn't seem to do anything at all.

The dragon let out a loud screech and shot a burst of flame at him. Only a medium sized boulder protected him from being burnt alive.

"What the hell is that?" George muttered, squinting into the distance, and I looked up to see what he was talking about. Coming from the direction of the castle, a small shape was hurtling at a fast pace towards us.

"…Is that a broomstick?" Fred asked, as it came hurtling towards the ground and stopped right next to Harry, ready for him to mount.

The crowd around us erupted in cheers as Bagman shouted "And it appears Mr. Potter has called a broomstick to his aid! What a plot twist we have here!"

Harry seemed to be completely ignoring everything around him as he jumped out of his hiding spot and mounted the broomstick.

Because of the Tournament, I'd never seen a Quidditch match at Hogwarts. I knew that Harry was the seeker on the team and I'd heard Fred and George talk about his talent on the broomstick before, but I didn't really believe it until just now.

The boy soared into the air, and he looked calm for the first time since I'd seen him enter the arena. He flew right at the dragon, buzzing around its head like a fly, just out of its reach, and the dragon glanced up and growled, flame shooting out of its nostrils.

Harry soared towards the ground and pulled out of the dive just in time to miss the burst of flame the dragon shot at him.

"Great Scott, he can fly!" Bagman cried delightedly. "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?"

I laughed at Bagman's comment, grinning now. Harry seemed fine now that he was on a broom. He was currently soaring in circles over its head, and I'd imagine the dragon would start feeling pretty dizzy soon.

He took another dive towards the ground, still missing the flame, but didn't manage to dodge the tail too well, as one of the spikes ripped his robes and hit his shoulder.

"Oh, so close!" Lee groaned, as Harry shot back into the air.

Harry was a fly to the dragon, and it looked like the beast was just dying to swat him. For another few moments, he irritated the dragon by hovering higher and higher above its head, keeping its attention on him.

Suddenly, the dragon let out a roar and spread its wings, taking off into the air, and Harry disappeared. A moment later, I spotted him right where the dragon's foot had just been, the golden egg now safely clutched in his injured arm as he flew as quickly as possible back to the entrance of the arena.

It took a few seconds for it to settle in that he'd gotten the golden egg, and gradually people joined in Katie and I cheering.

"LOOK AT THAT!" Bagman yelled. "Would you look at that! Our youngest champion is the quickest to get his egg! Well, that is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!"

"That was so amazing!" Katie gushed. "I knew that boy wouldn't be a disappointment!"

I couldn't help but laugh as I continued to cheer. The judges gave their marks and Harry ended up tied with Viktor Krum for first place.

"This calls for a celebration in the Gryffindor common room!" Lee announced loudly, and a few Gryffindor's surrounding us let out cheers.

Katie rolled her eyes.

"Everything is a cause for celebration with you, Mr. Jordan," I told him.

Lee shrugged. "I believe in living life to the fullest at all times… it's a simple way to be, Miss Montero," He said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

The crowds were starting to disperse, and everyone was still chattering in excitement. Fred and George were discussing Harry's broom skills; Angelina and Victoria were arguing over who deserved the highest marks. I saw the champion's tent and took of running with Callie straight for it.

"JAMES!" She screamed, causing quite a few people to glance our way, as she ran at him and jumped straight on him. He laughed and pulled me into the hug as well when he spotted me.

"You were so amazing!" Callie cried, and although James tried to hide it (well, he didn't try too hard), we could tell that he thought he'd done pretty well, too.

I caught sight of Cedric with his back turned to me, still in the victor's tent speaking to Dumbledore quietly. I headed in their direction, and as soon as Dumbledore moved to speak to Mr. Crouch, I jumped on Cedric's back and screamed "CEDRIC!"

He turned around quickly, a large grin on his face, and hugged me. "You have no idea how relieved I am right now," he laughed, running a hand through that gorgeous hair of his and grinning. "I don't think I've ever been more terrified… _ever_."

"You were so amazing! I knew it wasn't a mistake for Katie to bet on you!" He looked confused, but before he could ask I changed the topic (mostly to avoid him finding out that I hadn't bet on him). "Man, I told you that you'd be fine. And look, you're more than fine, because there's, like, a line of sluts waiting outside to see you. That's pretty awesome, right?"

Cedric laughed, looking down embarrassedly. "Um, did you happen to see Cho Chang out there?"

Who the hell is Cho Chang?

"Um, yeah, I sure did!" I lied, grinning widely. "I saw her when you were in the arena, too. She looked _very_ impressed."

"Really? Is she still out there?" he asked, grinning widely. "I might go see... Thanks, Bree. Hey, how about Sunday morning, I come find you in the Great Hall during breakfast and we hang out?"

"Sounds fantastic," I nodded, and he grinned, giving me another one armed hug before he left.

"Bree, for fucks sakes, if you don't hurry up, I'm not waiting for you," George snapped, and I turned to see him standing at the entry of the tent. I couldn't help the cheerful laugh that escaped me as I ran over and wrapped my arm around his, pulling him with me up through the school and to the Gryffindor common room, arguing over whose performance in the arena had been better.

It seemed that Harry hadn't made an appearance yet when we arrived at the common room, but Fred and Lee had food and drinks all covered. We only had to wait a few more moments before the boy who lived arrived, and I knew immediately when he entered the common room because a loud cheer erupted from those closest to the door.

"THERE HE IS!" Fred yelled, and I could suddenly see Harry as Fred and George hoisted him onto their shoulders. "YES!"

"Knew you wouldn't die, Harry!" George yelled, as Harry raised the egg triumphantly.

"Maybe lose an arm,"

"Or a leg,"

"But packing it all in together?"

"NEVER!" The twins finished together.

Katie and I managed to push our way to the front, because it seemed like even students in younger years were too tall for me to see anything over. I arrived just in time to see Harry raise the egg and yell "Who wants me to open it?" to loud cheers from all of us gathered around him.

He nodded and twisted the top of the egg, opening it, and what greeted us was a shrieking, horrible sound. My hands immediately shot up to cover my ears, and Fred and George dropped Harry in surprise as their hands shot up to their own ears.

After a moment, Harry finally managed to close the egg back up, and the first words anyone spoke came from the portrait hole.

"What the bloody hell was that?"

I turned to see Ron standing there, staring at Harry and twirling his hands around together. He looked so apologetic and awkward that it was almost painful.

"Er… alright everyone, go back to your knitting…" Fred called to the crowd.

"This is going to be uncomfortable enough without all you nosey sods listening in," George muttered, grabbing my wrist and pulling me with him over to the couch. Angelina and I sat down beside Hermione and Sam, and I tried my hardest to look like I wasn't eavesdropping on the younger boy's conversation.

There was a long pause, before Ron said "I reckon you'd have to be barking mad to put your own name into the goblet of fire."

"Caught on, have you?" Harry asked coldly, "Took you long enough."

"Well… I wasn't the only one who had thought you'd done it. Everyone was saying it behind your back," Ron defended himself. Not a great tactic, but okay Ronald.

"Brilliant," Harry muttered. "That makes me feel loads better."

"Well… at least I warned you about the dragons."

"Hagrid warned me about the dragons."

"No, no, no, no!" Ron cried, a sudden grin coming over his face. "No, I did, remember? I told Hermione to tell you that Seamus told me that Parvarti told Dean that Hagrid was looking for you. But… well, Seamus never actually told me anything so it was really me all along…" Ron's voice faded slightly, as though just now realizing a few flaws in his master plan. "I thought we'd be aright… once you figured that out."

There was a pause as Harry stared at him. "Who could possibly figure that out? That's completely mental."

And with that, the two boys grinned at each other like the past few weeks had never even happened.

"Boys…" Hermione sighed, exasperated. Angelina and I merely nodded along. I can't believe that not even an hour ago, this emotionally damaged, awkward little boy had faced off against a dragon… and won.

I was distracted suddenly by loud choking, and turned to the fireplace to see that Lee and Katie were having a competition to see who could stuff the most canary creams into their mouths at once, and Lee was now on his knees, having his back thumped by George, who was nearly crippled over in laughter.

…I didn't even want to imagine what it would be like if Lee was in Harry's place.

* * *

><p><strong>THIS CHAPTER WAS SO HARD TO WRITE! But I'm back. I love this story, so you'll get something new soon. <strong>


	8. That Festive Cheer

"So who's Cho Chang?" I asked Cedric the following Sunday. As promised, he'd collected me from the Great Hall in the morning, and because it was such a lovely, sunny day (it still shocks me when there's nice weather; I'd become too used to the rain), we collected a few plates of food and brought them outside to have a picnic of sorts. We'd been out here for around an hour now, and I found that I actually really enjoyed Cedric's company. He was a really laidback guy.

To my surprise, he looked away to hide a blush, with a stupid grin on his face. The cutest boy in seventh year was actually blushing. Cho Chang, you have done well.

"She's just some girl…"

I raised my eyebrows. "Right, _just some girl_? No way are you getting away with _that_… Come on, who is she?"

"She's a fifth year Ravenclaw girl. She's on their House quidditch team, and she's just…" he grinned again, "She's just great!"

His grin was almost infectious; I couldn't help but smile at his happy attitude. At that moment, I spotted Hagrid on the other side of the lake, walking with Madam Maxime. I'd seen them together a fair bit lately; it was actually very sweet.

Man, seems like everyone's been bitten by the love bug except me. For a moment, I was panicked Cedric might actually be able to read my mind (he's perfect at everything else, so why the hell not?! Man, if it turns out Cedric can read minds; I should really stop thinking such praising thoughts about him… that might be creepy) because he said "well, what about you? Any _totally_ cute boys caught your eye?"

I blinked in surprise and mild horror. Cedric winced slightly and shook his head. "I'm sorry… I'm not good at girl talk… I tried, though..."

"Well, not that it was my intention to leave this meeting on a decidedly creepy note," I said, trying not to laugh at him as I glanced down at my watch, "but McGonagall wants to see all the Gryffindor's from fourth year and up, so I have to go."

Cedric, too, glanced down at his watch, and jumped to his feet. "I'll pretend not to notice you chose to ignore my question, because Professor Sprout wanted to see us too."

I helped him collect the empty plates and take them back up to dump in the Great Hall, before waving goodbye and heading up the stairs to the fourth floor, where McGonagall wanted to see us.

It looked like all the students from fourth to seventh years had already arrived, and Katie gave me a big grin when I joined everyone.

"How was your date with Cedric?" Lee sniggered, and Fred and George's heads both shot up from where they were muttering to each other, leaning against the wall. They both looked horrified.

I rolled my eyes very obviously. "It was great; he was very romantic while talking about the girl he really likes in Ravenclaw."

The twins seemed to calm down slightly at my answer, but Victoria just looked disappointed at the news that Cedric wasn't as madly in love with her as she was with him.

McGonagall arrived then with Filch behind her, ushering us all inside. There were a few benches pushed up against the walls, and a large, empty space in the middle. She ordered the boys on one side and the girls on the other, and I found a space in the front row next to Alicia, Angelina and Katie on one side, and Hermione and a few of her friends on my other side. Filch started fiddling with what looked like a giant speaker in the corner of the room, as McGonagall began to speak.

"The Yule Ball has been a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament since its inception. On Christmas Eve night, we and our guests gather in the Great Hall for a night of _well mannered frivolity_," McGonagall said, and glared harshly around at all of us. I could see Katie out of the corner of my eye trying so hard not to laugh that she was shaking slightly. To be honest I don't know whether to laugh or not because I have no idea what a Yule Ball is. "As representatives of the host school, we expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward… and I mean this literally, because the Yule Ball is first and foremost… a dance."

A grin broke out on my face as Angelina gripped my arm and Katie immediately started chattering excitedly, along with almost all of the other girls around me.

"Silence!" McGonagall called, but she looked slightly amused. When everyone was relaxed back into their seats and listening, she continued sternly. "The house of Godric Gryffindor has demanded the respect of the wizarding world for nearly ten centuries! I will not have you in the course of a single evening besmirching that name in the course of a single evening by behaving like a babbling, bumbling, band of baboons!"

She paused to glance back at what Filch was doing, and I took that time to look at the boys. None of them looked too pleased. Ron had the biggest frown I'd ever seen on his face, and Harry and Sam just looked nervous. Lee seemed pretty confident in himself (as usual), and Fred and George were standing beside where Lee was sitting, grinning and muttering to each other. I wondered what they were so pleased about. George caught my eye suddenly and gave me a wide grin, which I couldn't help but return before McGonagall started talking again.

"Now, the dance is to let the body breathe!" Oh wow, I'm not too good at dancing, but getting lessons from McGonagall is a bit weird. "Inside every girl, a secret swan slumbers, longing to burst forth and take flight!" I saw Ron lean over to mutter something to two boys I vaguely recognized to share a dorm with Sam, and whatever he said seemed to displease McGonagall because she turned to glare at him and said, "Inside every boy is a lordly lion prepared to prance… Mr. Weasley?"

Ron looked horrified. "Yes?"

"Will you join me, please?" McGonagall asked, extending her hand and leaving no doubt that it was not just a friendly suggestion. She led him back to the middle of the room and stood facing him.

"Now, Mr. Weasley, will you place your right hand on my waist, please?" she asked.

I was trying not to grin as Ron looked up at her, completely scandalized. "_Where_?"

"My waist," she repeated icily, and as Ron slowly raised his hand to her waist, a loud wolf whistle erupted from the corner of the room. Fred and George were grinning like Christmas had come a month early, and they'd just received the most amazing present imaginable.

Ron raised a hand to make a rude gesture at them, but McGonagall quickly grabbed his hand and placed it back at her waist. She turned her head to nod at Filch, and he flipped a switch so that a slow, creaking melody came out of the speakers. McGonagall began counting "1, 2, 3… 1, 2, 3…" as she showed us the steps and directed Ron to follow her. Ron looked so unhappy, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Everybody come together!" McGonagall called, and I stood up happily with the rest of the girls, while the boys all stayed exactly where they were, looking like not even Voldemort himself could move them. "Boys, on your feet!"

Katie immediately grabbed my hand and began twirling me around, humming along to the music coming out of the speakers, before she spun me away with a laugh and George appeared suddenly in front of me.

"Care for a dance with your favorite twin?" he asked, extending his hand.

I couldn't help but grin up at him. "Of course, but if Fred wants to dance, he should ask me himself."

George rolled his eyes, as I laughed and grabbed his hand, reaching up to wrap my other arm over his shoulder as his slipped down around my waist.

I scrunched up my face and he asked what was wrong. "I'm so short," I said, shrugging, and he laughed.

"You're the perfect height, Bree, now shut it! I'm trying to learn to dance!"

McGonagall was in the middle of the room, still with a depressed looking Ron, and she was saying the steps of the dance out loud as she did it. It wasn't terribly complicated, and soon enough we were going at our own pace. Fred and Angelina had ended up next to George and I, and they seemed to be doing a really good job dancing. George put both his hands on my waist and lifted me, as McGonagall instructed, spinning me around to put me back down where I'd started. His eyebrows shot up as his hand returned to my own. "Merlin, you're light, Bree! Do you eat?!"

"Like a horse," Fred quipped, pulling Angelina sideways to avoid the kick I sent his way.

"Oh, Fred, your never failing charm should make it simple for you to get a date to the dance," I said sarcastically.

Fred nodded, completely serious. "Well, what can I say? There's a long line of women just waiting to be blessed by my gaze, even if only for a second."

Angelina scoffed and Fred shot a small glare down at her.

George opened his mouth to say something, when suddenly loud laughter erupted from the other side of the room. I turned with everyone else around me to see Katie and Lee, their legs tangled on the floor after they both fell over in the middle of a dance step. Katie was laughing hysterically and McGonagall was just trying to get her to stop laughing long enough that she could scold her.

George laughed with me before twirling me out in a new dancing gesture. Unfortunately, Fred had turned with Angelina at the same time, and Angie and I both ended up toppling over each other and onto the floor, while Fred and George laughed at us. George was used to me ending up on the ground, and as usual he bent down to pull me back to my feet.

As McGonagall sent us a small glare, I had a hunch the Yule Ball would turn into a disaster. I had no doubt there would be a few dancing related injuries.

* * *

><p>I'd never stayed at school over a holiday before. I'd heard that Walden was usually empty during the holidays, but it seemed that almost every student from fourth year upwards was staying at Hogwarts over Christmas.<p>

Mum wasn't at all supportive of my choice to stay at school over the break, but Toby and Dad seemed to understand and convinced her to calm down and allow Sam and I to do what we wanted. I admit, it would be a bit strange not spending Christmas with my family, but I was kind of looking forward to spending it with my friends.

Hogwarts, while usually quite gloomy and plain, was absolutely fantastic during Christmas. Leading up to the holidays, Hagrid brought in huge, lavishly decorated Christmas trees to decorate the whole school, and there seemed to be live fairies floating around everywhere. There was mistletoe almost everywhere, but after a fourth year boy literally dived under a piece of mistletoe I just so happened to be standing under, I tried to avoid them.

There were rumors flying around about the Yule Ball, some a bit more believable than others. Some people believed that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred bottles of mulled mead from Hogsmeade ("to be fair," Fred said seriously when we were discussing this rumor, "Hagrid could take down at least half of that in one go"), and that he had booked the Weird Sisters to perform on the night (Katie gripped my arm tightly and literally bounced up and down in excitement when she heard this rumor for the first time. That girls sugar levels are just permanently too high).

The last few days of school were pretty relaxed leading up to Christmas break. Flitwick seemed to be in a better mood and was awarding house points for pretty much anything. Snape was as brooding as ever, setting really complicated potions and a load of homework for over the break. It seemed like even Christmas couldn't stop Trelawney from predicting something dark and gloomy.

None of us were really paying attention in the last class of term and Trelawney seemed to get a bit prissy when none of us seemed interested in the life changing information as to how Pluto could disturb every day life.

"I would_ think_ that some of us would be acting a little less frivolous… if they had seen what I had _seen_," she said in her usual mystical voice, but it still didn't completely hide her annoyance. "Late last night, I was absorbed in my needlework, when the urge to consult the orb overpowered me. I arose, I settled myself before it, and I gazed into its crystalline depths… and what do you think I saw gazing back at me?"

"Death?" Fred guessed, his face remaining completely void of emotion as he stared at Trelawney, unimpressed.

She nodded, her face solemn. "_Death_… my dears… coming ever closer now…"

"If someone died every time she predicted a death, there'd be no more students at Hogwarts for her to kill off," Angelina muttered as the bell rang and we left the classroom.

"Not necessarily," Lee said, smiling cheerily. "The only person she ever talks about dying is Harry, so we're all safe."

Despite the large amount of homework we'd been given for the holidays, nothing could bring down the cheerful mood in the school. Fred and George had already seemed to have decided to not do any of their homework, instead choosing to work on creating some more joke shop products. A new favorite of theirs was the 'canary cream,' a treat which they altered to temporarily turn you into a canary when you took a bite. Over the holidays, people kept bursting into feathers and turning into canaries all over the common room.

But despite having turned into a canary three times in the past week, I was still really cheerful. Christmas had always been my favorite holiday.

I woke up one day in the holidays to see snow falling outside of my window, and I grinned before jumping up out of bed and diving onto Angelina's bed.

"ANGELINA WAKE UP!" I screamed, successfully rousing everyone else in the room, too. "IT'S SNOWING!"

"What do you want me to do about it?" Angelina muttered, burying her face in her pillow and swatting at me. When I continued to jump on the bed she groaned loudly before rolling over and sitting up, rubbing her eyes. I grabbed her arms and pulled her up on the bed.

"COME ON ANGIE!"

For some reason, ever since I was a child, I've been obsessed with snow. I see it every year, but I never stopped loving it. It's such a simple thing, but it makes me really happy.

Angelina, though at first unenthused, eventually started to laugh along with me. By that stage the entire dormitory was awake. Angie somehow managed to calm me down enough to allow us to put on proper clothes for being out in the cold, and then I grabbed her arm and pulled her down the staircase, practically skipping.

We reached the common room and found Lee, Katie, Fred and George lounging in front of the fire place. Katie looked up when she heard us laughing and coming down the stairs, and she immediately jumped up with a large grin on her face, enthused in seconds. But then again, Katie gets enthused about porridge most mornings.

Angelina grabbed Fred's arm and Katie pulled Lee and George up (even though I don't think she actually knew where we were going) and despite there being seven whole floors and a whole lot of stairs between us and the snow, we eventually managed to make it downstairs.

I threw myself out of the Entrance Hall doors with a grin so wide it hurt my cheeks and down into the snow, flipping on my back and waving my arms and legs back and forth.

"What are you doing?" Katie giggled.

"I'm making a snow angel, silly!" I cried, and Katie and Lee flopped down into the snow to do the same. Fred and George soon disappeared from my line of vision, and after a few more seconds of waving my limbs about like a crazy woman, I stood up to admire my work. Grinning at my snow angel masterpiece, I looked up to find Fred and George just in time to have a snowball collide with my face.

Lee began laughing so hard at my look of shock that he had to stop making a snow angel and clutch at his stomach. My reaction delayed from shock, I also wasn't prepared for a snowball to hit me from behind, too. I spun around just in time to see Angelina take off running towards Fred and George, laughing madly.

"You are so dead, Johnson!" I yelled loudly. Lee jumped up and pulled Katie up by her collar, away from her snow angel, just as I picked up a large clump of snow and threw it at the Weasley twins. George ducked, but Fred wasn't fast enough, and it hit him in the face, causing him to choke slightly because his mouth had been wide open from laughter when he was hit.

"We're under attack!" George cried loudly, as Angelina used her wand to create a kind of barrier of snow for them to hide behind. Lee quickly did the same for us, and Katie and I dived behind it.

"Okay," Lee said quickly, turning to Katie and I, "We obviously need a plan here. So, Katie, I'm thinking, you defend the home base; Bree, you sneak around to the left of them; and I'll sneak around to the right. Together, we can bring them down."

I raised my eyebrows. "Lee, you put way too much thought into a snowball fight."

"Yeah how about we just, like… throw snow?" Katie said, nodding.

Lee just glared at us. "That is a_ loser's_ attitude! We can't let them win!"

"Just go with it," Katie recommended in a whisper when Lee turned away. "He turns into a girl when he loses anything."

"Wait!" I cried when Lee went to duck out from behind the barrier. "We need a team name!"

"Uh… Team Titty Sprinkles?" Katie suggested. There was a small pause when Lee and I just stared at her, before shrugging and turning away.

So as Lee ran around to the right, ducking behind trees and shrubs and looking like a more idiotic version of James Bond, I ran around to the left. Angelina and Fred spotted Lee and came sprinting out from behind their barrier towards him, as Katie threw snowballs at them from the home base. I managed to run up behind their base, spotting George hunched over behind his barrier, rolling up snowballs hurriedly.

I gathered up some snow into my hands, and then took off running towards him, jumping onto his back and pushing him down into the snow, shoving the snow in my hands onto the back of his head. He made a noise of shock before his face planted down into the snow and I sat on his back victoriously.

"LEE! TEAM TITTY SPRINKLES IS VICTORIOUS-" I yelled loudly, but broke off when George grabbed my legs and rolled me off of his back, so that he was on top of me in the snow.

He had just picked up a large amount of snow in his hands and was about to shove it in my face when I started yelling "Truce! Truce!"

From the distance, I heard Lee screaming _"NO TRUCE!"_

George laughed and dropped the snow, while reaching up with his other hand and pulling my beanie down to cover my face.

"Team Titty Sprinkles?" he asked, as I struggled to pull my beanie back up off my face. "Seriously?"

"Don't hate me cause you aint me," I said, completely seriously.

George scoffed, and it was then that I realized he was still on top of me, laying in between my legs, with one arm resting beside my head, his own face very, very close to mine. "You look like a marshmallow," he said, grinning, as he pulled on a lock of my light blonde hair and looked down at my white coat.

I smiled up at him, until someone clearing their throat got my attention. George and I looked up to see Fred, Lee, Katie, and Angelina standing on the other side of the snow barrier, staring down at us.

"Well, well, well... what's going on _here?"_ Katie asked, grinning like the Cheshire cat and nodding to the two of us, entangled on the ground.

George quickly jumped off of me and grabbed my hands, pulling me to my feet. I could almost swear his hands lingered in mine for a second longer than necessary, but then it was over.

Frowning heavily, Lee shook his head sadly. "Fraternizing with the enemy, Bree? You've disappointed Team Titty Sprinkles."

When he turned to walk back up to the castle in defeat, I hit him with another snowball.

* * *

><p>As Christmas Eve drew nearer, the Yule Ball was becoming more of the focus. For such a handsome, confident boy, Cedric sure was unaware of the effect he had on girls. It took me nearly a whole week to convince him Cho would gladly accept his invitation to the Ball. It was only when I mentioned that such a pretty girl would surely be asked by someone else soon did he suck it up, and he asked her not five minutes later. She, of course, said yes, and Cedric couldn't wipe the grin off his face for the rest of the day. What a cutie.<p>

Harry and Ron were freaking the fuck out. In desperation, Ron had asked me why girls always tended to travel in packs, and I had to gently break it to him that lassoing a girl was not the way to get her alone to ask her. Though I did give him points for creativity.

Lee had already asked a girl from the year below us in Hufflepuff with the biggest boobs I had ever seen in my life. Fred and George congratulated him heartily.

Alicia was going with a lovely boy from Ravenclaw in the year above us. He was just as shy as she was, but very sweet, and very cute.

Sam had surprised me. He was going with a lovely, if a bit manic, girl called Lavender Brown. I actually really liked Lavender, though I never saw any relationship but friendship between them continuing after the Yule Ball. So I approved of Sam's choice.

The excitement was beginning to heighten when people began purchasing and being sent dress robes and dresses. One morning at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, I was sitting in between Angelina and George discussing Alicia's new boy toy while Alicia tried to hide her deep red blush in her porridge, when an owl flew into the room and landed right in my cereal.

Surprised, I let out a scream, and nearly every head in the Hall turned to look at me.

"False alarm," Lee called airily, as George reached down to extract the owl from my breakfast.

"Oh, this stupid bird… Ron!" George called, and he picked the bird up and actually threw it down the table to his little brother, the bird only just managing to slow itself down by flapping its wings at the last minute. It was then that I realized the owl was carrying a parcel much too large for it, and my interest piqued slightly.

Ron looked excited as he undid the string holding the parcel together. "Oh, Mum sent me something!" he said, opening the top of the parcel and pulling out something orange, pink, and frilly. He looked confused as he pulled it all out, and stood up to hold it out. It was absolutely hideous. "Mum sent me a dress…" he said, confused, as he held it up to his body.

Hermione's hand shot up to her mouth to try and keep in her giggles.

"Well, it does match your eyes. Is there a bonnet?" Harry asked, looking back into the box and pulling out a frayed, yet still distinctively frilly, bonnet. "Aha!"

Ron rolled his eyes and knocked Harry's arm and the bonnet away, walking down the table to his little sister.

"Ginny, these must be for you," Ron said, as though it was obvious.

Ginny looked up from her cereal and immediately frowned. "I'm not wearing that! It's ghastly!"

By now, Hermione couldn't even keep her laughter in. Ron looked at her in question. "They're not for Ginny!" Hermione managed around her laughter. "They're for you!"

I burst into laughter, along with everyone else around me. Fred and George laughed the loudest, grinning like this was the best thing they'd ever witnessed. They got far too much pleasure from their brother's misery, I've noticed.

"They're dress robes!" Hermione insisted.

Ron looked absolutely horrified. "What?! Do I actually have to wear these?!"

"Look at the bright side, Ron," I said, shrugging. "At least you'll stand out."

"Nah, those are real traditional," Lee said, nodding seriously. "I'm sure _everyone_ will have robes like that."

* * *

><p>Angelina, Alicia, Callie, Katie, James, and I were all sitting at the Gryffindor table later in the week to study. Or, as pretty much every person in the Hall was doing, open some books on the table and then chat to your friends quietly, and pretend to study when the supervising teacher (currently Snape) wandered past. We were currently discussing our plans for a Hogsmeade visit that weekend. The village had been open to students every weekend leading up to Christmas, so we'd have opportunities for shopping.<p>

"Well who do you think you'll go to the Ball with?" Alicia asked us all, smiling. She was only so happy because she was already in the clear with a decent date. Let me tell you, there are some fucking weirdoes from the four schools inhabiting the castle, and avoiding them isn't that easy.

"Your friend Victoria… she's very lovely," James said.

There was a small silence. "…So you mean she's a slut?" Angelina eventually asked.

James just shrugged. "Whatever. Is she single?"

"So single and_ so _ready to mingle with a Triwizard champion," Katie said, nodding. "You're in, James."

He looked significantly happier. We all looked down at our books as Snape walked behind us, looking over our work. He knew nobody was doing any work, but its sweet he still tries.

"What about you, Angie?" Alicia asked when Snape finally passed, and just as she was about to answer, a piece of paper hit her on the shoulder. We all looked up to see Fred and George sitting with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Sam a little further down the table. Fred was the one to have thrown the paper at her.

"What?" She hissed, because Snape was almost directly behind Fred.

"Do you" he pointed at her, "want to go to the ball," here he made a ridiculous dancing motion, shaking his shoulders slightly and all around looking like an idiot, "with me?" he finished, pointing to himself.

"The ball?" Angelina asked, trying and failing to hide a grin. "Yeah… yeah, alright then."

Fred grinned widely and then looked back down at the book in front of him. Angelina did the same. I was still trying not to laugh when George looked up and caught my eye, smiling gently at me before looking back to his work.

"So now Angelina's covered, what about you then?" Callie asked me.

"Well, I haven't really got my eye on anyone," I said, shrugging.

"Are you sure?" Callie asked. When I looked at her curiously, she raised her eyebrows and nodded between George and me.

Katie and Angelina both nodded and looked up, suddenly a lot more interested than they were a moment ago.

I glanced at George to make sure he wasn't listening before I answered Callie. "Are you serious?"

"You're always together!" Katie said. "You two would be totally cute as a couple!"

"He's just been really friendly to me since I came here…" I defended.

"Yeah," Katie said, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "Really _friendly…"_

"You two could go on double dates," Callie said, motioning to Angelina, who looked down quickly to hide a slight blush.

I shook my head. "Not gonna happen. Sorry."

The others nodded as I looked back at my textbook, but I heard Callie whisper "She's just in denial."

"Not for long," Katie muttered, in a tone that made me decidedly nervous.

* * *

><p>The weekend was finally here, and Katie, Alicia, Angelina, Callie, and I were all rugged up in our warmest clothes for a trip to Hogsmeade. We walked down to the Village with Fred, George, and Lee, but they quickly left when faced with the notion of dress shopping.<p>

There was a cute store at the end of the street, and the five of us hurried in out of the snow and into the warmth of the store. It was a small place, but somehow managed to fit in too many racks of clothes. It was overcrowded, but still cute.

Katie immediately dived into the first rack of clothes she saw, chattering excitedly to nobody in particular, while Callie made her way over to the accessories, taking a furry pink feather boa and draping it over her shoulders.

I turned around to see that Alicia was chatting to an elderly sales assistant, and by the time I turned around, Angelina was with Callie, wearing a black top hat.

"Too formal for the occasion?" she asked seriously.

I laughed and took out my camera, snapping a photo of them posing together, before I responded. "Just a little bit, Angie."

Katie huffed when she saw her. "It's so unfair Angie; I swear you look good in anything. You're just naturally gorgeous."

Angelina actually laughed out loud. "Katie, you live with me. You know how long it takes for me to put my makeup on in the morning."

By this time I was perusing the clothing racks, and about an hour later I'd found a few dresses I liked the look of. Katie had a pile so big that she could barely lift them all up at once to take them to the changing room. We walked in together and it took around half an hour of trying on, swapping dresses, and fussing over each other for everybody to find a dress they liked. Katie was the first to be successful (with such a large clothing pile, I didn't wonder why).

Katie ended up with a beautiful light golden dress. The top portion was completely gold, and as it spread down the golden bits gradually spread out in streaks from the top until there were none at the bottom, to cover the yellow creamy color. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I imagine it would have taken a long time to create such an amazing dress.

Alicia had a dress with the top portion a simple black, and flowing out from underneath her bust it was a lovely sparkling silver. It was gorgeous and stood out, but it suited Alicia's shy personality at the same time.

Callie's dress was a strapless white satin with what looked like silver glitter coating portions of the bottom. It contrasted beautifully with her dark brown hair.

Angelina had a black dress with a plunging neckline. It was tight and looked like it was wrapped around her.

I was the last to find a dress, and Katie immediately gasped when I walked out of the changing room.

My dress was strapless and purple, with the bust inlaid with a complicated arrangement of silver beading. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and I absolutely fell in love with it the moment I saw myself in the mirror.

"I think this is the one!" I said, grinning.

"Girl, if George doesn't want to rip that off of you the moment he sees you, something is wrong with him!" Katie said, and by the time I spun around to hit her, she had already run back out the main portion of the shop, laughing maniacally.

* * *

><p>The next night, I was stretched out on the couch in front of the fire reading a new novel Toby had sent me a few weeks ago, George laying at the other end of the couch reading some kind of catalogue. It was difficult to fit the both of us on the chair considering how tall he is, but we somehow managed. Harry walked into the common room looking a little lost sometime around six o'clock, wandering over to the fireplace and sitting on the armchair next to me, without even noticing the two of us shoved on the couch.<p>

I folded down the top of the page I was at and turned over to face him. "You look troubled, young Potter."

He looked up in surprise, and when he saw George and me, he smiled sadly.

"Come on, tell Uncle George all about it," George said, shuffling closer to Harry and I, until his thigh was pressed against mine.

"It's just… really hard to find a date to the Ball," he muttered, staring at the ground.

Merlin, that's a joke right? He's Harry fucking Potter.

"Anybody specific in mind?" I prodded.

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. She's already got a date."

"Who?"

Harry hesitated slightly, before deciding he actually did want to talk to someone about his problem. "Cho Chang."

Oh, wow. I've never met this girl, but she seems to have the boys chasing her. Harry had the biggest green eyes I'd ever seen, and they just looked so sad, I couldn't take it.

"Look, Harry," I said, sitting up and shuffling closer to him. "You're a cute guy. You're an absolute sweetheart, you're funny, witty, brave, and you're a competitor in the Triwizard Tournament. I'm willing to bet that loads of girls would be lining up to go to the Ball with you!"

Harry smiled and looked away to hide a blush. He is the biggest cutie.

"And not to mention you vanquished the Dark Lord. That's, like, a pick up line in itself."

There was a pause while Harry and George just stared at me.

"What, like, 'Hey, I'm Harry Potter. I vanquished the Dark Lord, date me'?" George tried out, staring at me in confusion.

"Well, classier than that. Like, 'hey, I'm Harry Potter; can I vanquish you like I vanquished the Dark Lord?'"

"Girl, you make my heart thump harder than the Dark Lord, when I vanquished him," George grinned.

"Exactly. That's _classy_!" I praised, and Harry laughed a bit, somewhat cheered up. Good, I hate when people are unhappy.

"Look, the morale of this story is that you're going to find a lovely girl to take to the Ball. I mean, how could you not?" I said, and Harry smiled genuinely at me.

"Thanks, Bree."

At that moment, the portrait hole opened, and a large group of people came crowding in, including Angelina, Katie, and Fred. In the middle, I saw Sam and Ginny holding on to Ron, who looked like he'd seen a ghost and might topple over at any moment.

Hermione came hurrying over from where she was studying on the other side of the common room, and I jumped up so Ron could take my seat on the couch. He looked completely dazed, like he had no idea what was going on.

"Oh, Ron, are you alright?" I asked as Ginny and Sam let go of him, leaning down and brushing some of his hair off of his forehead. He looked up at me confusedly.

"What the hell happened to him?!" Harry demanded worriedly.

"He- er- well, he just asked Fleur Delacour to go to the Ball with him," Ginny told us. She looked like she was fighting back a smile, but she kept patting his arm sympathetically.

"You _what_?!" Harry asked, as shocked as the rest of us.

"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron gasped. "What was I playing at? There were people all around, and she was just there talking to Diggory… and it just came over me… I couldn't help it… it just sort of slipped out…"

"Well, actually… he sort of screamed it out," Sam corrected.

Ginny nodded. "It was a bit frightening."

"Well what did you do then?" Harry asked.

"What else?" Ron asked, looking at Harry desperately. "I ran for it. I'm not cut out for this sort of thing, Harry… may as well just become celibate."

"Well, that _is_ an option," Fred said cheerily, and Katie nudged his arm. "It's a drastic one, but still…"

Harry clapped a comforting hand on Ron's shoulder. "You were right, she is part Veela. Her Grandmother was one. You probably just walked past when she was turning on the old charms for Diggory."

Ron seemed to have calmed down slightly, but now he was panicking because he thought he'd never find a date to the Ball.

"You're not the only ones without dates!" I told them. "I haven't got one! There's still plenty of time before the Ball!"

"What, nobody's asked you?" Ginny asked, sounding surprised. How flattering. I knew I liked Ginny for a reason.

I shrugged. "People have asked me, I'm just not really interested in any of them. I'd rather go alone than with someone I barely know. Some kid called Zacharias Smith asked me and when I said no, he looked like he wanted to hit me. How is that appealing?"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Katie nudge Fred and then nod at George, who suddenly looked a lot less happy at my mention of Zacharias Smith asking me to the Ball. He must not have liked Zacharias very much. I couldn't say I blamed him; the kid seemed like a bit of a psycho, to be honest.

"Wouldn't it be great to just go with a_ friend_?" Fred said loudly, putting extra emphasis on the word 'friend' and raising his eyebrows at me and George.

George looked at his brother, looking confused, and I just glared at Katie. I couldn't believe she'd gotten Fred involved in this nonsense.

"You people act like not having a date to the Ball is the end of the world!" I cried. "Now if you'll _excuse me_, I'm going to bed! Goodnight!"

With that, I snatched up my book and stalked up to my dormitory. Just before I hit the stairs, I heard Fred say "Well, look at that, you both don't have dates! That's convenient!" followed by a loud thump, and Katie's laughter.

* * *

><p><strong>It's been so long and I feel horrible! Senior years at school are a killer, and I'm meant to be studying for my exams next week, but just couldn't seem to leave this story alone. This is my longest chapter, and it's just a series of short scenes put together, but I'm so happy with the way it turned out! Let me know what you think! <strong>


	9. Hogwarts Should Have More Dances

Christmas was a week away, and the castle was buzzing. It almost felt like the Gryffindor common room had shrunk with the amount of people loitering in there these holidays, and I couldn't stay in the Walden carriage for very long without the headmistress irritating me, much like she did when I actually attended Walden. She'd been spending a lot of time with Karkaroff lately, and they always kind of looked like they were plotting something.

They probably weren't, but they were both creepy looking people, so it's only natural people might come to that conclusion.

I'd taken refuge in the library to actually try and get some homework done over the holidays, and I found Hermione sitting in there, too. With Viktor Krum.

In case you didn't get that, I'll repeat it. Hermione was sitting with _international fucking Quidditch player Viktor Krum_.

So as not to interrupt anything, I sat at a corner table and got out some work. After about half an hour, Viktor got up and left, passing by my table and shooting me a small smile. I've talked to Viktor a few times, and he's actually a really nice guy, but I knew he still remembers when I first met him after falling off the bookshelf and ended up in the hospital wing with a twisted ankle.

Hermione got up soon after and left the library, but not before I saw how hard she was still blushing. Bless her.

After around an hour of schoolwork I was nearly finished and bored out of my wits with too much potions revision. So I leant back and stretched out, letting my eyes wander around the library, until I spotted something.

I stood up and wandered over to the other side of the library (the reading section), with large plush chairs and couches. It was a lot nicer than the study side of the library.

"Hello, Draco," I drawled, flopping down onto a couch beside the blonde boy and making myself comfortable. "May I say you are looking exceptionally brooding today."

Draco glanced up at me in the most condescending way I have ever witnessed, and then looked back down to his book without responding.

"Doing a bit of light reading, yeah?" I asked enthusiastically. "You don't seem like the reading type."

No response.

"Oh, Draco, you're breaking my heart here, boy!" I cried, throwing my hand up to cover my chest.

Draco let out an irritated sigh and snapped his book closed. "Why are you talking to me?"

"Cause I like ya, of course!"

"You don't_ know_ me," Draco said simply. Someone's a Debbie Downer today.

...Or every day.

"So tell me something about you!" I said enthusiastically, shuffling closer and bringing up my legs to cross.

"Alright," Draco said, snapping his book closed, irritated at my continual interruption. "I'm in Slytherin. You're in Gryffindor."

There was a small silence between us while I waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "Uh, nice try, Draco, but I don't think you completely grasped the point of the game… I meant tell me something I don't know."

"Alright, you're new, so you might not know this, but Gryffindor's and Slytherin's don't mix. Things don't work like that." He said this, as he did everything else, with an air of arrogance.

I scrunched my nose in distaste. "Who says things don't work like that?"

Scoffing, he immediately went to answer and realized he didn't have a legitimate response. "It's just how it is!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "But that's so stupid! Do you really choose your friends based on what their House is? Do you also choose your friends based on their skin color?"

Looking offended, he snapped, "Of course not!"

"It's kind of the same thing," I pointed out, shrugging.

"No it's not! It's not even nearly the same thing!"

"Aw, Draco, look… it's our first fight as friends!" I cried, clapping my hands together enthusiastically.

For a moment he looked away, scoffing, and I swear I nearly saw him smiling. Soon enough, he'd composed himself enough to turn back to me.

I smiled up at him as sweetly as I could manage. "So your arm looks all better."

"What? Oh," he looked down, clearly remembering the first time we'd met. "Yeah."

Merlin, it's like trying to have a conversation with a wall.

"So what actually happened?"

He shot me a glare, as though trying to figure out my real motives for talking to him, before he decided to answer. "An accident in Care of Magical Creatures."

Immediately concerned, I asked, "Oh, what kind of accident?"

"The kind of accident that happens with an incompetent teacher."

I frowned. Hagrid seemed a bit overenthusiastic but not incompetent. But Draco seemed happy enough to wallow in his own self-importance, so I decided to change the subject.

"Are you excited for the Yule Ball?"

He just shrugged.

"Who are you taking?"

"Pansy Parkinson." He said simply, and my eyes widened.

"Oh… she seems…" to be honest, she seems rude, bitchy, and self-involved. "…nice."

For the very first time, Draco Malfoy laughed in front of me. I leant back, slightly taken aback. Draco had a nice laugh, it sounded very carefree; and he had a wide, handsome smile. It's such a shame that he doesn't smile too often.

"You're a horrible liar," he said, still smiling. "You don't have to hide how nasty you think she is. She_ is_ nasty."

I couldn't help but smile widely back at him. "Then why are you going with her?"

He shrugged, trying to rein his emotions back in. "I just am, I guess."

Looking up, Draco's eyes caught something behind me and he scowled. Picking his bag up off the ground, he shoved his book into it roughly and stood. He muttered a quick goodbye before hurrying away from me.

He left so suddenly, I just stayed sitting where I was and stared after him. That boy is so confusing. Honestly, I can't figure out an exact reason as to why I keep going out of my way to talk to him. He's snappy and kind of rude. Sam and his friends have mentioned how much they dislike him and how mean he is to them. I genuinely can't help but think that there might be a really friendly, sad little boy under that hard shell. He has such a happy laugh and such sad eyes.

I was brought out of my thoughts by a noise from behind me. "Bree?"

Turning, I saw George standing behind the couch. Draco must have seen him; it was no secret he didn't like Ron too much, so that might extend to the rest of the family. George smiled widely at me when I met his eyes and sat down where Draco had been.

"I thought I'd find you here," he said happily.

Shrugging, I replied simply "I had to get my homework done. The common room was so overcrowded."

He glanced around. "So where are your books?"

I looked down in confusion, and then remembered that I'd left everything at my table in the corner when I'd come to see Draco. "Oh, I was just having a break…"

George nodded and we lapsed into silence and he suddenly looked nervous. He looked like he wanted to say something, and then looked like he had convinced himself not to say it, and it kind of continued like that for a few moments. So I lounged back on the couch in silence and pretended not to notice his odd behavior. He'd make a decision eventually.

And I was right.

"Bree, has anybody else asked you to the Yule Ball?" he eventually asked hesitantly.

In actual fact, a boy from Ravenclaw in our year had come up and asked me if I had a date to the Yule Ball just this morning. Turns out he wasn't asking for himself because he was gay, but his best friend Jason had been considering asking me for a while. But I wasn't sure if he actually would or not and I'd never really met Jason before, so I answered semi-truthfully. "No."

"So you don't have a date?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, I figured I'd just go on my own. It seems easier."

"Yeah, I was going to do that too…"

My head shot towards him. "Seriously? George, I can name at least six girls who would kill to go to the Ball with you. Probably _literally_ kill someone."

He looked suddenly uncomfortable. "Well, yeah, so can I. But I can also name a few lads who would kill to go with you too, and you're still going alone."

It was a fair argument, and although I was still confused as to why he would choose to go alone based on James and Lee's enthusiasm for finding the 'hottest' dates, I dropped the subject.

We sat in silence for a moment before he said casually, "Hey, so, since we're both going alone… would you maybe want to go alone... together?"

I looked up at him in surprise. "Alone… together? Do you mean go to the Ball together?"

"Well, yeah…" he looked nervous and wasn't making eye contact with me. His eyes shot up to gauge my reaction, and when he caught my eye he blurted out, "You know, as friends! Friends keeping each other company?"

"So you want to go to the Yule Ball with me as friends?" I asked slowly.

He nodded quickly. "Yeah! Completely platonic!"

I barely even had to consider his offer. Smiling, I nodded. "That sounds really fun, George. I'd love to go with you."

A wide grin broke out across his face, making his eyes crunch up adorably, as he jumped to his feet. "That's so fantastic! This is gonna be so much fun, Bree!"

George grabbed my arms and pulled me off of the couch and into a big hug, and I couldn't help but laugh and grin along with him. Especially when I pulled away and saw Madam Pince leaning over her desk and glaring at us harshly.

"Oh," George muttered when he saw her. "Oops."

He was still grinning though, as he turned and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Well, I've got to go meet Fred…"

I nodded and flopped back down onto the couch, smiling up at him. "I'll see you in the common room later. We need to work on our dancing so we don't embarrass each other at the Ball."

His grin widened, and he nodded before turning and leaving the library, practically skipping.

"Strictly platonic…" I muttered, staring after him. The smile slowly fell from my face as I tried to figure out why those words left such a bitter taste in my mouth.

* * *

><p>Katie squealed so loudly when I told her that George and I were going to the Ball together that the entire Common room fell immediately silent and stared at us.<p>

You'd think that would make her stop.

It didn't.

I think she's trying to communicate through squeals now. She's kind of pointing at me with both hands and I think I heard what sounded a bit like my name in the squeal somewhere.

Eventually, after far too long, she stopped squealing, punched both fists in the air as though in victory, and flopped down on top of me on the couch in a big hug that kind of just turned out with me being crushed underneath her on the couch.

Angelina and Alicia hadn't moved from their positions on the other couch, simply staring wide eyed at Katie the entire time.

By this time, other people in the room began going back to their own business hesitantly, still watching Katie for any other break outs. You'd think they'd be used to it.

Katie sat up so she was straddling my stomach, a huge grin on her face. "I TOLD YOU! I _TOLD_ YOU HE LIKED YOU!"

"Keep your voice down!" I hissed.

"Why aren't you gloating too, Angie?! We called this!" Katie cried, only a tiny bit quieter, but still, it was something.

"We're just friends! He even asked me by saying it's completely platonic. And can you get off me?!"

Katie completely ignored the second part of my response and scoffed. "_Completely platonic_ my ass! You two are meant to be together forever!"

"Why don't you do this to Angelina?!" I demanded, bucking my hips up to try and get her to fall off of me, but she had amazing balance.

"Because Angelina blushes like an idiot every time anyone says her and Fred's names in the same sentence," Katie said, rolling her eyes, as Angelina pouted from behind her. "But you are so _stubborn_!"

Oh that's rich! "_You're_ talking to _me_ about being stubborn?!" I cried incredulously.

"Oh, fine! Deny it! See if I care! You'll see I'm right one day!" Katie yelled, crossing her arms. After a second, she began to smile though. "But congratulations on bagging George as a _completely platonic_" she rolled her eyes visibly, "date to the Yule Ball."

I let out a huff of air and rolled to the side to push her off of me, but ended up falling off the couch myself, so I ended up sprawled on the floor on top of Katie. Just as the two of us started laughing, a wolf whistle came from above us.

Lee stood above us, staring down with one eyebrow raised. "Kinky. Mind if I join in?"

Rolling my eyes, I rolled off of Katie to lie on the floor next to her, as she kept giggling. Fred and George came up behind Lee, each raising their eyebrows when they saw us on the ground. George gave me a quick smile, and Katie immediately nudged me in the side.

Katie and I pulled ourselves up off the floor and sat back on the couch, as Lee flopped down in the middle of us and wrapped one arm around each of us. Fred and George sat down onto the floor to sit in front of the fire, and Fred immediately began chatting about how much of an asshole he thought Professor Snape was. Turns out George left me in the library for a prank with Fred, and they now had detention for the rest of the week.

"Totally worth it though, wasn't it?" Fred mused.

At that moment, Sam, Ron, Harry, and Hermione, wandered into the common room and over to the window behind where we were sitting. I noticed that Ron was grinning like a mad man, and immediately called them over to us. Hermione sat on the couch with Angelina and Alicia while Sam took the plush chair beside me, with Ron and Harry flopping down next to the twins.

"You're looking cheery," I said to Ron suspiciously, considering his bad mood for the past few days.

"Harry and I got dates to the Yule Ball!" Ron said, seeming very proud of himself.

"A miracle," George muttered, before Katie asked "Who?"

"Padma and Parvarti Patil," Harry said. "They're twins."

Oh yes, I'd seen Parvarti around the common room a few times, usually with Lavender Brown. She seemed a bit prissy and always seemed to be giggling.

"We really lucked out," Ron said, completely serious. "I mean, they're reasonably attractive, aren't they?"

I considered this for a moment. "Well, yes, I suppose so, but what about their personalities? Do you know them very well?"

Hermione snorted loudly. "Ronald wants to take the most attractive girl who will go with him, even if she's completely horrible. So, no, I don't think that was a factor in his choosing of a date."

Angelina's eyebrows rose. "Are you serious?"

"Well, admittedly, that's how a lot of us do things," Lee piped up cheerily, shrugging at us.

Katie snorted. "And look at all the bitches you've gone out with!"

Lee actually looked like he was considering her statement.

"But that's such a horrible attitude to have!" I cried, exasperated. "You could be missing out on someone really amazing, just because she hasn't got the biggest tits or the shiniest hair. That's such a horrible attitude."

Ron looked a bit uncomfortable. "Well, Bree, that's kind of easy for you to say. I mean, you seem pretty perfect."

I couldn't help but be slightly flattered and tried my hardest not to show it. Those Weasley boys were sweet talkers.

"Oi!" Fred snapped, trying and failing to hide a grin. "Ronniekins! Stop flirting with George's girl!"

I very obviously rolled my eyes and George only laughed slightly and nudged his brother.

* * *

><p>Christmas is my very favorite holiday. It always has been. I love the snow, I love the decorations, I love the festive cheer and giving moods of people around this time of year.<p>

Callie and I would usually curl up at one of our houses drinking hot chocolate and watching typical Christmas films, until we started chattering about everything we could think of. Since no electronic devices worked in Hogwarts, we had to settle for the Walden carriage. And paper cups with lukewarm chocolate milk.

But it's a tradition, and no matter the new place, the lack of films about woodland creatures and nerdy teenagers saving Christmas and getting the girl/other woodland creature, and the quality of the hot chocolate, Callie and I curled up on the couch in the Walden carriage, all cozy together under a big fluffy blanket she stole from James, and talked about everything that had ever crossed our minds.

I've always understood Callie, and Callie has always understood me, ever since we met when we were four years old. We never judge each other, only listen, and provide our own input. Callie brings me back to reality, and sometimes I feel like she's the only person alive whose opinion actually makes sense.

However, our tradition also reminded me of other traditions. Every year, Sam, Toby and I went shopping for the Christmas tree. We did all of our shopping together, mainly because Toby would usually need a girls perspective on whatever he was buying his latest play thing, and I always loved helping them. Toby and I didn't get along sometimes, but I miss him a lot when I don't see him for long periods of time, like over the school year. So after James interrupted our girl time by barging in wearing a bright red jacket and a Santa hat, yelling 'Ho, ho, ho! Sexy Santa wants to know if you've been naughty or nice!', I went straight up to the owlery and sent a letter home to my brother, telling him how much I missed him, and that I hoped he liked the present I'd sent off a week ago for him. Then, I went to the common room, and hugged Sam in a way that only a big sister can achieve.

So Christmas makes me feel sentimental, okay?

We'd all exchanged gifts (Katie had provided not so subtle hints to all of us, so she got exactly what she wanted), and everyone was happy. I had a lot more makeup, books, and clothes, but turns out that Sam and Toby had exceptional taste in jewellery and had worked together to find me a gorgeous ring. It was a purple stone in the middle with a circle of small, white stones around the outside. I was in love with it, and since Toby has impeccable design taste, it even matched my dress, and he'd only listened to descriptions of my dress before finding it.

However, this Christmas, gifts and loved ones and decorations weren't the only thing on my mind… or anyone else's, for that matter.

The Yule Ball had finally arrived.

Katie, Callie, Angelina, Alicia, and I were dragged up to the dormitory at 5pm by an excited Victoria, under the claim that we all needed to start getting ready. Katie, being Katie, lounged around in bed for an hour claiming she didn't need three hours to get ready, and thus nearly started crying when it was a quarter to eight and she wasn't ready.

Victoria rolled her eyes and left with Ruby, claiming it was rude to keep James waiting. She kept finding ways to insert into the conversation that she was going to the ball with a Triwizard Champion. James thought she was a bit clingy, but his ego loved it.

At eight o'clock, Katie was finally ready. My hair was curled and falling around my shoulders, with a minimal amount of purple eye shadow to compliment my dress.

It was silent in the room while the five of us stood and stared at ourselves in front of the full length mirror Katie had summoned.

"Girls," Katie announced, with a tone of finality. "I would _so_ do all of us."

"Our dates are very lucky men," Angelina agreed, nodding. "I wish I could take myself to the Ball."

It was eight o'clock and the Ball was due to start soon, so we all headed down to the Entrance Hall to find our dates. The room was busy and I couldn't immediately place the boys, but as we walked down the stairs a wolf whistle drew my attention, and I turned to see Lee grinning, having been the one to whistle. From there, I saw Alicia's date with a huge grin on his face, and Fred and George standing completely still. My eyes immediately fell on George.

George was just staring at me, seeming unaware that I was now looking back at him and smiling. His mouth hung open slightly and he looked a bit dazed, so much so that I wondered what was wrong. Fred nudged him and he snapped out of his stupor, his mouth snapping closed as he came towards me and greeted me as I stood on the bottom stair, still looking down at me.

He didn't say anything for a moment, just smiled at me widely. Then, he shook his head and murmured "You look beautiful, Bree."

I looked down, not entirely sure why I was blushing, and said, "Well, Weasley, you clean up pretty well, yourself."

It was then that I realized Katie, Fred, Angelina, Callie, Lee, and Alicia were all staring at us. Katie looked like I was her daughter at her first dance, which was a little weird.

George, too, noticed them, and nervously coughed and said formally, "Shall we go then?"

I just nodded and took his outstretched hand, walking with him towards the doors. Midway there, I spotted a head of messy orange hair and hideous frilly robes, and knew my little brother had to be somewhere nearby. Sure enough, I heard his loud laugh and turned to see Sam standing with Harry, so I hurried over and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, giving him a big hug.

Sam turned around and smiled widely at me.

"Oh, Sammy, you look so dashing!" I cried out, actually feeling a little bit emotional over the situation. After I'd sufficiently fussed over him, I forced George to take a photo of Sam and I (and I got Sam to take a photo of George and I, because, hell, we looked pretty good, and I may never get George to dress up that nicely ever again). It was actually kind of emotional seeing my little brother clean up so nicely. I fussed over Lavenders dress, a full length deep red that looked fantastic with her strawberry blonde hair, when her jaw suddenly dropped as she stared at something over my shoulder. Turning, my own jaw dropped, too.

"Oh… my… Merlin…" I murmured, staring. Before me was Hermione, looking absolutely stunning in a light pink gown. Her usually unruly hair had been tamed into a sleek looking bun, and in short, she looked amazing. However, that wasn't the shocking part. Her date was Viktor Krum.

Viktor _fucking_ Krum!

She gave us a small wave, and then nodded to Viktor next to her as though in disbelief that he was her date.

"Everybody into the Hall!" McGonagall's voice called over the crowd. "Into the Hall, please!"

"Hermione," I said as I passed her. "You look so stunning."

Harry and Sam also stopped to talk to her, but Ron stalked straight past her without looking at her once, Parvarti or Padma or whichever twin following behind him.

George and I wished Harry luck and headed into the Hall, where I was momentarily struck by the transformation. The walls had been covered in a sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The large House tables had disappeared, being replaced with about a hundred smaller, round ones.

Everyone was gathered around the dance floor and the small path leading to it. We should have Balls more often; everything was so fancy, I love it.

"BREE! GEORGE!" I heard, and turned to see Lee standing at the front of the crowd, standing on his toes and waving like a maniac, causing a boy next to him to move slightly away with a scowl to avoid getting hit. He looked like a total idiot, so I couldn't help but laugh as George took my arm and led me over to him.

George and I managed to fit in at the front of the crowd right as the doors swung open and the Champions and their dates filed into the room.

First was Fleur Delacour and her date, a boy from Hogwarts who looked so unimaginably happy that he'd snagged Fleur as a date; then Cedric and Cho, who looked so adorable together I could barely handle it. Damn, Cedric is looking dashing tonight. I know I swore to stop thinking things like that around him but it's like seeing a naked person and promising not to think about the fact that they're naked.

Viktor and Hermione came then. Viktor looked very pleased with himself indeed, and Hermione looked like she was still in disbelief. Then, finally, Harry and Padma or Parvarti or whatever came in last. Harry looked nervous beyond all belief, and it looked like taking each step was a huge task that required all of his concentration. Padma/Parvarti/whoever looked like she was living it up.

Dumbledore was grinning widely at the head of the main table, a scowling Karkaroff and a barely smiling Professor Zira sitting to his left, and an enthusiastically applauding Ludo Bagman and a politely smiling Madame Maxime to his right. Next to Madame Maxime was someone I don't think I've ever seen before. He had bright red hair and horn rimmed glasses, and looked too young to be anyone of importance.

At that second, George groaned and muttered "what the bloody hell is he doing here?" Fred, following his brother's line of vision, saw the boy I'd been looking at and scowled.

"Who is it?" I asked, leaning in closer to George to hear him over the applause.

Sighing, he said, "That's our brother, Percy. He graduated last year and I firmly believe he was put on this earth to suck all the fun out of everything he possibly can."

Oh Merlin, of course. Another Weasley.

The Champions positioned themselves on the dance floor and I saw Harry struggle to take his date's waist. Fleur's date grabbed her so enthusiastically I wondered how she didn't find him a bit weird.

A slow, classical tune began playing, and the Champions began dancing. I could see that Harry's date was the one leading, and he still seemed nervous. Cedric was grinning from ear to ear and executing perfect dance moves. Is there anything that boy cant do perfectly?

Soon enough, Dumbledore extended his hand to Professor McGonagall and they joined the Champions. Igor Karkaroff and another woman did too, and that's when George turned and bowed slightly, extending his hand to me. He looked up and winked, and laughing, I took his hand and he led me out onto the dance floor.

"Don't trip," George whispered into my ear, completely seriously, as he took my hand and wrapped his other arm around my waist, leading me in the dance.

I was about to make an offended comment at his lack of faith in me when I stumbled slightly over his foot. So I just looked away and pretended not to hear him laughing at me.

Soon enough the first dance was over, and Harry looked as relieved as he had after fighting the dragon in the first task. Poor kid. After that, everybody sat down for a quick dinner, and just after we'd finished, one of the rumors floating around the school was proven true.

The Weird Sisters trooped onto the stage to loud applause. Katie gasped loudly and grabbed my forearm, squeezing tightly. Her date looked at her in mild concern, but his adoration for the Weird Sisters won out and he kept applauding.

Instead of George, this time it was Katie who pulled me out of my seat and to the dance floor with her. We managed to stumble our way through the more traditional dance, before George took my hand and spun me to him, just as Katie's date took my place in front of her.

By the end of their third song, I'd developed a new appreciation for the Weird Sisters, a distaste for floor length dresses and high heels, and had come to the conclusion that this school needs to have Balls more often.

George and I stumbled off of the dance floor, dodging around Angelina and Fred, who were still dancing as exuberantly as George and I had been a moment ago, forcing people to move away from them for fear of injury.

"I'll grab us a drink?" George suggested, and smiled when I nodded and moved off towards the drinks table, leaving me at our table. That was when I spotted Ron and Harry sitting at a table not too far away from me, slouched down, with very unhappy looking dates sitting beside them. I was about to head over there when a hand wrapped around my arm from behind, and I swiveled around to see Cedric standing before me, a wide grin on his face.

"Bree!" Cedric grinned, "You look beautiful!"

I smiled and told him he looked fantastic, too, and tried to ignore how much better I'd felt when George had complimented me at the beginning of the night.

"You did a great job dancing, buddy," I told him, "and you and Cho look pretty cozy together…"

Cedric Diggory actually blushed. "I'm so glad I listened to you and asked her before somebody else did. She's so wonderful. And you and George are here together! I knew you two were into each other!"

My eyes widened as I stared at him. "Oh, Cedric, no… George and I are here together as friends."

"Oh," he looked genuinely surprised. "_Really?"_

At that second, Cho appeared at his shoulder, giving him a wide smile, and then looking to me.

"Cho!" Cedric immediately got a wide grin on his face. It really was adorable, the way that he forgot about everything else around her and just gave the girl all of his attention. "Cho, I want you to meet my friend, Bree."

Cho beamed up at me. "It's so nice to meet you," she said in an accented voice, holding her hand out and shaking mine.

"You, too, Cho," I agreed, smiling at her. And I meant that, it was really nice to finally meet the girl who had Cedric so captivated. "I've heard a_ lot_ about you."

Cho just laughed, and that was when George returned with our drinks. Handing me my punch, he smiled politely at Cho and Cedric.

"George," Cedric nodded to him.

George smiled and simply nodded back. I remember Katie telling me once that Fred, George, and Lee had never forgiven Cedric for beating them in Quidditch last year and very nearly rolled my eyes. Boys.

"Oh! I love this song!" Cedric cried as the Weird Sisters started up another song. "Save me a dance, Bree?"

I nodded as Cedric and Cho returned to the dance floor, and that was where George and I were heading, too, when a redheaded boy popped up in front of us so suddenly I nearly tripped.

"Hello, George," the boy said in a strict tone of voice as George steadied me. George seemed like he was forcing a smile.

"Bree," George said, completely monotonously, "This is my brother, Percy. Percy, this is Bree."

I smiled at him politely as Percy seemed to be sizing me up. "It's nice to meet you, Percy."

"You too, Bree. I don't recall ever seeing you around before. I graduated last year as Head Boy, you see, so you'll have to excuse me for being shocked I don't remember a fellow Gryffindor."

George rolled his eyes without Percy seeing at the fact that his brother had managed to slip in how he'd been Head Boy. I could tell Percy was a very confident boy.

"Yeah, that's understandable," I said, nodding. "I just transferred from Walden this year."

Sudden realization seemed to dawn on Percy and he looked pleased, losing his calm act temporarily. "Oh! You're the girl George writes about in his letters home!"

My eyes widened in shock and I looked up to see George's ears turning bright red out of embarrassment.

I looked back to Percy to see him smiling smugly. "It's so nice to finally meet you, Bree; I feel like I already know you!"

I was about to respond when George snapped "What are you even doing here, anyway?!"

"Oh, Mr. Crouch is very unwell. All the stress of the Tournament isn't doing him any good at all. He decided to have a quiet Christmas at home this year and sent me in his place. I've been promoted, you know. I'm now Mr. Crouch's personal assistant; it's a very serious job, but Mr. Crouch knows that he can count on me." The way Percy said this all in one breath, I could tell he'd been dying to mention it ever since he started conversing with us.

"Yes, is that so? And he's stopped calling you Weatherby now, too, has he?" George snapped scathingly. Percy blushed a light pink and turned and strode away, looking affronted.

"That was a bit mean," I said, and George looked down at me, his features softening.

George sighed loudly. "He's just such a prat, I can't help myself."

I nodded and we lapsed into silence. "So," I started after a moment, unable to keep the grin off of my face. "You write about me to your family?"

George's ears flushed a dark red again, as he suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "He's completely exaggerating. I might have mentioned you once. If that."

I nodded but stayed silent. George fidgeted uncomfortably and then added "Well, Fred mentions you, too. It's not just me!"

"So you _have_ written about me?" I questioned, smirking slightly, and he flushed. "What sort of things do you say?"

"Well, just-" he seemed to struggle with his words for a moment in his nerves, "-just, quite generic stuff, you know? Just that you're new and you're a really good friend and, well, all around good person, really- and just that- well, just that our family would probably really like you."

That is so sweet. I smiled widely up at him and he seemed to lose some of his nerves, smiling shyly back at me. I brought my hands up to cover both his cheeks and said, "You're so sweet when you're nervous," and he grinned widely, his nerves seemingly completely evaporated, as he looked down at me.

A flash went off from beside us at that moment and I turned to see Lee snapping a photo of us, a large grin on his face.

I retracted my hands from George and put them on my hips instead, turning to glare at Lee. "Is that my camera?!"

He nodded enthusiastically, a bright smile on his face. "Yeah, it's great! I think I should be a photographer!"

And with that he ran off with my camera. I'd suggest that someone spiked the punch bowl but I knew Lee well enough by now to know he was just regularly that odd.

George grabbed my hand then and pulled me to the dance floor, laughing the whole way. We soon joined Fred and Angelina, who were still dancing so enthusiastically it was a danger to the people around them.

The next hour or so passed very quickly, and I hardly even realized how late it was getting. I shared an upbeat dance with Cedric, another with Sam, and another with Lee. Callie, Katie, Angelina and I had danced insanely until Katie had toppled over her heels and almost twisted her ankle. George and I had shared a few slow dances, and he managed to keep me giggling the entire time, and I danced with James as well, where he informed me that his time with Victoria was going fantastically and then winked over exaggeratedly. Idiot.

I caught sight of Harry and Ron a few more times, each time still sitting down. By the end of the hour their dates had ditched them and Ron looked even moodier than before.

I had to leave the dance floor for a drink eventually, and kicked off my shoes, picking them up in one hand and sipping my drink with another. Then, I headed over towards Harry and Ron.

"What exactly are you two doing?" I demanded. "Where did your dates go?"

"Left," Ron grunted, not looking at me.

I whacked him on the arm with my shoe, and he looked up at me, surprised.

"Why did they leave?"

The two boys looked suddenly uncomfortable, and I snorted in a very unladylike way.

"Are you two serious?" I demanded. "There is no romantic chemistry between Sam and Lavender and look at them! They're having a great fucking time! But _you_, Ronald, had the chance to get with one of the most attractive girls in your grade, and you decided to sit and not participate in the night at all?! And Harry, you're a Triwizard champion; you should be living it up!"

They looked slightly guilty, so I sat down next to them and sighed, using a more gentle tone to talk to them. "What's up, guys?"

Neither answered, but I followed Ron's line of vision to see that he was staring at Hermione laughing with Viktor Krum, and I understood.

"Maybe you should have asked her before somebody else did," I said quietly, and Ron's head snapped around to stare at me.

"What? No- no…" he managed to stutter out, "Well that's just- just completely beside the point!"

"Oh?" I asked quietly, and Ron nodded, looking like he'd almost convinced himself for a moment.

I stood determinedly, throwing my shoes down next to Ron and holding my hand out to them both, smiling widely. "Come on then!"

They both looked at my hand and then looked up at my face, looking like I was asking them to enter into a suicide pact with me. I wiggled my fingers and Harry eventually took my hand, and I squealed excitedly, pulling him to his feet.

"I'll be back for you, Ronald!" I called over my shoulder as I pulled Harry onto the dance floor, just in time for the next upbeat song.

I took both of his hands in mine and began swaying with him, forcing him to move his body with mine in time with the beat, giggling at his jerky movements, telling me he wasn't a confident dancer.

"See, you're not so bad at all!" I told him, grinning widely. "You're a natural born dancer."

At that moment he stumbled over slightly, and I winced. "Okay, so maybe you won't be a famous ballet dancer, but still!"

With that, he twirled me out and then pulled me back towards him, causing me to stumble slightly as I hit him.

For the first time tonight, I saw Harry grin. "Well, we can not be famous ballet dancers together, then."

Touché, Mr. Potter.

At that moment, Professor Moody, dancing with Professor Sinistra, passed us, leaning over and muttering to Harry, "Nice socks, Potter."

I raised my eyebrows at Harry as Moody left us, and he looked down at me, shrugging slightly. He reached his hand down and tugged up his pant leg, allowing me to see socks of a hideous yellow color with golden snitches on them.

Unable to help myself, I laughed, drawing a grin from Harry. "Dobby the House Elf knitted them for me."

Well if that's not the most darling thing I've ever heard. "That's so sweet! However, the fact that Moody can see through your clothes with that eye makes me mildly uncomfortable."

I spun Harry out, surprising him enough that he stumbled, and looked at me with those big, shocked, doe eyes of his. I couldn't help but laugh, and soon he joined in, dipping me down so far that he nearly dropped me.

Harry suddenly stopped laughing and stared at something over my shoulder, his eyebrows furrowing in concern. I turned to see Ron and Hermione standing and arguing with each other, by the looks of it, Hermione looking more and more upset by the minute.

"Oh, no," Harry mutters, and let go of my hands, hurrying over to his friends. I stood and watched as the three of them all left the Hall, Hermione and Ron still arguing.

I realized that I was standing on the dance floor when I felt a hand resting on the small of my back, and I jumped slightly, only to turn and see George.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently, and I nodded, smiling up at him.

"Yeah, of course. I think I might just sit down for a while," I said. George brought his hand from my back to take my hand, tugging me towards the doors. "Come on."

I let him lead me from the Hall to sit down on the stairs of the Grand staircase. George looked down and saw my shoeless feet, and grinned but didn't say anything about it. Instead, he said, "I saw you dancing with Harry."

I nodded, and he continued. "I haven't seen him dancing in about three hours."

Shrugging, I said, "He and Ron just came with the wrong girls, I guess. They looked so depressing; I just wanted them to have some fun."

George snorted. "Ronald can't have fun without making an ass of himself to at least one person. Harry's… slightly better."

"Well Ronald just can't admit he has feelings for Hermione. The sooner that happens, the happier all of us will be. But Harry... He's just such a sweet kid, you know? He's been through too much for such a young boy. I know I've only known him a few months but I can just see this light in his eyes sometimes… it gets so dim at times that I can hardly tell its there. I feel like he'd be a completely different person if he didn't get so much shit thrown at him, and I just… I want him to be happy."

Harry didn't deserve the life that he was given, but I think one of the main reasons that I like him so much is based on how he deals with it. He tries his hardest to stay positive and friendly at all times.

The boy next to me had a small smile playing on his face as he responded, "You want _everyone_ to be happy, Bree."

"And what's wrong with that?!" I demanded, slightly offended.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. It's a good thing, and as a matter of fact it's something I really admire in you." George said, smiling. "You can't stand to see anyone sad, Breezy."

I shrugged. "I don't think anybody deserves to be unhappy. Being unhappy isn't nice."

George nodded, smiling again, and looked away to stare across the Hall and out the front doors. It looked like real fairies were floating around out in the darkness.

Sitting on the stairs of the Entrance Hall, I finally managed to slow down enough to realize how tired I was. My feet were killing me from wearing my heels all night and I had to stifle a yawn behind my hand.

George looked at me and wrapped an arm around me, pulling me to rest against him. A glance at George's watch told me it was long after midnight and after sitting down, I'm not sure I could find the strength to get up and dance again. The Hall had slowly emptied over the past half an hour and it looked like George and I wouldn't be rejoining the remaining dancers.

Leaning more into George, I closed my eyes and just took a deep breath in. George smelt of a light cologne he wore and a woodsy scent that was all him, and just that scent surrounding me somehow managed to relax me pretty quickly whenever it was around. George rubbed my shoulder gently as I rested my cheek on his shoulder.

"Merry Christmas, Bree," George murmured into my hair.

"Merry Christmas, Georgie."


	10. Potentially Problematic Situation

There was something distinctly saddening about Christmas being over. Seeing the trees and decorations and lights all disappearing from inside the castle got my mood down a bit every year, but if anything more so this year because the castle was once again back to its dark self.

I didn't spend a lot of time mourning Christmas this year. My attention was taken by an article in the Daily Prophet that emerged about a week into the new term.

It was titled_ 'Dumbledore's Giant Mistake,'_ and was accompanied by a picture of Hagrid looking extremely shifty. The article had a decidedly nasty undertone, with phrases such as _'an alarmingly large and ferocious looking man'_ to describe Hagrid, and ended with the revelation that he was half giant.

I read it while sitting at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, and found myself suddenly very put off of food.

"Why would somebody want to write a news article about a person's bloodline?" I asked, unable to keep the sadness out of my voice. "This is so mean."

"_Bloodthirsty and brutal nature_?!" Katie snarled, looking more angry than upset at the article. "The man is a big softie! He couldn't even squish a fly!"

"This is probably why he hasn't been teaching since term started," George said, sounding disgusted as he threw down the paper.

"Well, he can't honestly let this get to him, can he?" Angelina demanded.

Fred shrugged. "Well, I don't know, I think there's a reason he kept it quiet. Giants are known for being bloodthirsty and cruel."

"But Hagrid's not any of that," I said quietly.

"Well, _we_ know that," Fred said. "But giants just aren't… well… _liked_. I guess he's kind of got it the same as werewolves like Lupin. He's not dangerous at all, but because of what he is, people will just assume he's horrible and mean."

I went down to see Hagrid most days, but he never opened the door for me. I knew he was in there, because there was smoke coming from the chimney, but he resolutely ignored all visitors. Hermione, Sam, Harry, and Ron were having the same problem.

Hagrid's heritage and lack of motivation for greeting guests wasn't our only problem. Barty Crouch hadn't been seen for weeks, as I overheard Ludo Bagman telling Harry in the Three Broomsticks one Hogsmeade weekend. He'd been sending in instructions to Percy, who insisted he was ill, but hadn't been seen by anyone since slightly after the first task. This, Bagman said, was slightly alarming, because it was the second ministry employee in recent times to sort of... disappear. They weren't worried about Barty because of his daily letters to Percy, but a woman named Bertha Jorkins had been missing since before the school year started, last seen travelling in Albania when she simply disappeared between one stop and another.

I felt I'd spent too long at the counter getting our drinks to still seem like I wasn't eavesdropping (though I hadn't meant to, I overheard Percy's name and got curious), so I turned to leave just as Fred and George appeared at my side, cornering Ludo Bagman, who they seemed to spend a lot of time, well… stalking, for lack of a better term.

It was around this time that Harry said very loudly from beside me, "Trying to ruin someone else's life, are you?"

I turned in surprise to see Harry glaring furiously at a very odd looking woman. She had hair so blonde it was nearly white, horn rimmed glasses that I think were supposed to be fashionable, bright banana yellow robes and long pink fingernails, clutching at a feathered quill.

"Harry," she said easily, seeming delighted at his presence, grinning at him almost predatorily. "How lovely to see you! Why don't you come and join us?"

"I wouldn't come near you with a ten foot broomstick," Harry said, looking furious with this odd woman. "What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?"

The woman raised her heavily penciled eyebrows and bared her teeth in what I think was meant to be a smile, but really just seemed predatory. "Our readers have a right to know the truth, Harry, I'm merely doing my job-"

"You're the woman who wrote that awful article!" I finally realized, stepping forward furiously. I felt George's hand at my elbow, but I shrugged him off. "Who cares if he's half giant?! There's nothing wrong with him!"

"What do you get out of writing a story about a persons heritage, anyway?!" Harry demanded angrily.

The woman completely ignored both of our statements, the quill in her hand blurring to life and dropping down onto a pad of paper that a man accompanying her held out. "How about giving me an interview about the Hagrid that you know, Harry?" she asked, the quill flying across the page at an alarming rate. "The man behind the muscle. Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"

"You _horrible_ woman!" I burst out, unable to stop myself, and suddenly Hermione was standing at my side.

"You don't care, do you? Anything for a story, and anyone will do, wont they? Even Ludo Bagman-" Hermione said, through gritted teeth, before the blonde woman shot us both withering glares.

"Be quiet, you silly little girls, and don't talk about things you don't understand. I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl… _not_ that you need it," she said coldly, eyeing Hermione's bushy hair judgmentally at the end.

"Ugh," Hermione said, looking disgustedly at the woman in front of her. "Let's go."

She had been speaking to Sam, Harry, and Ron, but I followed them out of the tavern, unable to stand being in there anymore.

"She'll be after you next, Hermione, and probably you too, Bree!" Ron burst out as soon as we were outside.

"Let her try!" Hermione cried shrilly, nearly shaking in her anger. "I'll show her! _Silly little girl_, am I?! Oh, I'll get her back for this, first Harry, then Hagrid…"

"Hermione, seriously, she'll dig something up on you! You don't want to anger Rita Skeeter!" Ron said.

"She deserves it! Why would somebody want to be so _cruel_?!" I demanded, and Ron just shook his head, at a loss for what to say.

"Hagrid isn't going to hide anymore." Hermione said determinedly as we marched up the hill leading to her home. "He should never have let that pathetic excuse for a human being upset him in the first place! Come on!"

Breaking into a run, she led us up the road, through the gates, and right through the grounds to Hagrid's cabin.

"Hagrid!" I yelled, as Hermione and I started banging on the door.

"Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there!" Hermione shouted. "Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess, Hagrid!"

"You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you!" I cried. "You're just being-"

With that, the door swung open, and Hermione and I were left face to face with Albus Dumbledore.

My mouth dropped open in shock, as the Headmaster smiled pleasantly down at us, completely ignoring the fact that we had been shouting less than a minute before. "Good afternoon."

"We- er- we wanted to see Hagrid," Hermione finally managed to stutter out.

"Yes, I surmised as much," Dumbledore said simply. What a sassy bitch. "Come in."

We entered the small cabin, and before I'd even caught sigh of Hagrid, his huge boarhound Fang jumped up on me, licking all of my face that he could get to and nearly knocking my small frame right over. I managed to fend him off for long enough to look around and see Hagrid.

He looked a mess. He was seated at the large dining room table, clutching a large mug like it was his lifeline. His face was horribly blotchy, his eyes swollen, and his hair looked like a wig of tangled wire.

"Hi, Hagrid," Sam said gently, and he finally looked up, looking like he'd only just noticed us.

"'Lo," he said, in a very hoarse voice.

"More tea, I think," Dumbledore said, closing the door behind us and summoning a revolving tea-tray in mid air, along with a plate of cakes. He magicked the tray onto the table, and then we all sat around it. There was a slight pause, and then Dumbledore said, "Did you happen to hear what Miss Granger and Miss Montero were shouting, Hagrid?"

I could feel myself blushing slightly, but Dumbledore just smiled kindly at me. "These five people still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."

"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry burst out, seemingly unable to hold it back. "You don't think anything that Skeeter cow- oh, sorry, Professor," he added, looking at Dumbledore.

"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said, Harry," said Dumbledore, twiddling his thumbs together and staring at the ceiling. There was a small pause as we all just stared.

What a kooky old man.

"Er- right," Harry said sheepishly. "I just meant- Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that- _woman-_ said about you?"

Two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's eyes and fell slowly into his tangled beard.

"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," Dumbledore said, still looking carefully up at the ceiling. "I have shown you countless letters from parents who remember you from their own school days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that, if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it-"

"Not all of 'em," Hagrid said hoarsely, "Not all of 'em wan' me ter stay."

"Really, Hagrid, if you're holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time," Dumbledore said, staring sternly at Hagrid. "Not a week has passed since I became Headmaster of this school, when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"

"Yeh- yeh're not half giant!" Hagrid croaked out.

"Hagrid, look at what I've got for relatives!" Harry said furiously. "Look at the Dursleys!"

Sam and I glanced at each other, and I shrugged. I'm gonna have to guess they aren't the friendliest people.

"An excellent point," said Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery…"

Dumbledore trailed off, and I just stared at him. Okay, firstly, what kind of inappropriate spells, and secondly, what an odd story to tell.

"Please come back and teach, Hagrid," Hermione said quietly. "Please come back, we really miss you."

"Nobody cares what that woman wrote," I added, "Everyone who knows you knows who you really are."

Sam nodded, smiling at Hagrid. "You were one of the nicest people to me when I first came here, and from what I can see, you're like that with everybody. Why would we not want to be your friend anymore? Bree even insulted that Skeeter woman. Bree doesn't insult people."

I nodded to show my agreement, as Hagrid gulped, and more tears leaked down his cheeks into his beard. Dumbledore stood up.

"I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid," he said simply. "I expect you back to work on Monday. You will join me for breakfast in the Great Hall at 8:30. No excuses. Good day."

Dumbledore left the cabin then, and Hagrid soon began to sob. I jumped up and hurried to his side, wanting to offer any form of comfort I could. I'd never been able to handle people crying. I began to pat his arm as he looked up and managed to say "Great man, Dumbledore… Great man…"

"Yeah, he is," Ron said distractedly. "Can I have one of those cakes, Hagrid?"

Hagrid nodded absent mindedly, muttering for Ron to go ahead. The rest of us all stared at him in disbelief, and he got half way through a generous slice of chocolate cake before he looked up and noticed.

"Yeh're all righ'…" Hagrid sniffed. "I bin stupid… my ol' Dad woulda bin ashamed o' the way I bin behavin'…" more tears leaked out, and he looked up. "Never shown ye a picture of my ol' Dad, have I? Here…"

He got up and walked over to his bedside dresser, opening a drawer and pulling out a picture of a short wizard with Hagrid's crinkled black eyes, beaming as he sat on top of Hagrid's shoulder. Hagrid was about eight feet tall, judging by the apple tree beside him, but he couldn't have been older than eleven. They looked happy.

"Tha' was taken jus' after I got inter Hogwarts," Hagrid told us croakily. "Dad was dead chuffed… thought I migh' not be a wizard, see, 'cos me Mum… well, anyway. 'Course, I never was pure shakes at magic, really… but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see, in me second year… Dumbledore was the one who stuck up for me after Dad went. Got me the gamekeeper job. 'e trusts people, 'e does. Gives 'em second chances. Tha's what sets him apar' from other Heads, see. He'll accept anyone at Hogwarts, s'long as they've got the talent. Knows people can turn out okay even if their families weren'… well… all tha' respectable. There's some tha' don' understand tha'. There's some who'd always hold it against yeh… there's some who'd even pretend they just had big bones rather than stand up an' say- I am what I am, and I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed," my ol' Dad used ter say, "there's some who'll hold it against yeh, but they're not worth botherin' with." An' he was right! I've bin an idiot. I'm not botherin with her no more, I promise yeh that. Big bones… I'll give her _big bones_."

…aaaaaand the conversations gone into weird territory again. Apparently I'm missing something here.

Ignoring the meaningful looks the fourth years were all sending each other, I considered Hagrid's speech. He was completely right; never be ashamed of yourself. It's such a simple concept, yet so difficult to do.

"Yeh should never be ashamed of yourself!" Hagrid burst out, gaining enthusiasm. "Never. Everyone has somethin' abou' themselves ter be proud of. Hermione, yer the most brilliant witch I've ever met. Don' hide tha'! Ron, yer really one of a kind. Truly, always see the bright side of any situation, tha' sense of humor of yours never fails; know how ter trust people, yeh do. And Sam, you were so shy when yeh first came here, and look at yeh now! Confident in yerself, and tha's a great thing!" Hagrid turned to me now. "And Bree... Yeh see the good in everyone. Never failing positivity. Tha's not a quality tha' should be overlooked."

I couldn't help the smile that came to my face.

"And yeh know wha', Harry?" Hagrid continued, "When I firs' met you, you reminded me o' me a bit. Mum an' Dad gone, an' you were feelin' like yeh wouldn' fit in at Hogwarts, remember? Not sure yeh were really up to it… an' now look at yeh! School champion!"

Hagrid just stared at Harry for a moment, before he said, very seriously. "Yeh know what I'd love, Harry? I'd love yeh ter in, I really would. It'd show 'em all… yeh don' have ter be pure-blood ter do it. Yeh don't have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It'd show 'em Dumbledore's the one who's got it righ'! How you doin' with that egg, Harry?"

"Great, really great," Harry said, nodding quickly, and when he momentarily made eye contact with me, I knew he was lying.

But his lie had the desired effect; Hagrid's miserable face broke into a wide, watery smile. "Tha's my boy… you show 'em, Harry, you show 'em. Beat 'em all.'

I couldn't help but give Hagrid a big hug before we left his cabin later that afternoon, having succeeded in cheering him up somewhat. He was nervous to start back at work, but I'm confident he'll be fine.

After visiting Hagrid, I felt a lot better. I was no longer allowing Rita Skeeters article to bother me now that I knew Hagrid was starting to recover from the hurt it had caused him.

However if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that I tend to worry too much about other people's problems. And right now, Harry solving the clue he got from the first task was starting to bother me.

* * *

><p>A few days later found me once again in the library. I'm a book nerd, I love the library, but Merlin, I am sick of this damn place. As it turns out sixth year isn't the bludge off Fred and George thought it was going to be (well, it kind of is for them, considering they never do any of the work they get assigned), and the workload truly is a bitch.<p>

I saw Draco sitting at one of the tables when I walked in, and he merely gave me his usual 'I'm better than you' glare, so I continued on to where I was going. I'd caught him giving me the same glare a few more times since I sat down, and I was starting to catch the hint that he wanted something from me when he seemed to catch the hint that he wasn't getting it and packed up his books and stopped at my table on his way out of the library.

"Okay, why haven't you come to bother me yet?" he asked in what was obviously a fake snappish tone. Deep down, I think this kid kind of likes it when I bother him.

I looked up at him and then pointed down to the open books in front of me. "I've got some riveting potions reading to do. Sorry, buddy."

That was when I caught sight of something that he was clutching with his books; the Daily Prophet with the article about Hagrid.

"And, I guess there's also_ that_," I added, gesturing to the newspaper.

He looked down, confused for a second, before he seemed to realize what I was talking about. Then he looked back at me with a purposely straight face.

"You weren't exactly kind in that article," I said, shrugging.

"The mans a half giant! It's my own right if I don't want a half _monster_ teaching me!" He burst out, angered by my statement beyond what I had expected.

I shrugged. "I guess that is your own right. But I somehow really doubt that's why you did it."

Sighing slightly, I gathered my books together and stood up. "If you're nice to people, they'll be nice back," I said simply, and with that I walked past him and towards the exit of the library.

On my way out, I caught sight of Hermione jumping up on her tiptoes to attempt to grab a book from a high shelf. Having learnt my lesson in situations like these, I summoned it for her with a wave of my wand (George had ended up teaching me the trick to silent casting after a few long, sleepless nights) and glanced down at the title before I handed it to her.

"_Plants for all uses ever needed_," I read the title aloud, raising my eyebrows. "Sounds thorough."

That was when I noticed Hermione was clutching Harry's golden egg to her chest, and my eyebrows rose even further. Turning, I saw Sam and Harry sitting at a table shoved at the end of two bookcases, with Ron dozing leaning against the window and curled up as best he could on the small wooden chair he was on.

"Please tell me you aren't trying to solve the clue for the second task with one day to go?" I asked quietly. The three people who were actually awake all looked at me and nodded, Harry looking slightly guilty.

"Well, I guess there's no time like the present!" I chirped, and grabbed the book back from Hermione, flopping down in a chair and opening it. "What are we looking for?"

"A way for Harry to breathe underwater for an hour," Sam said flatly. I looked up and frowned.

"Sorry, I'm gonna need a back story to this before I can be of any help," I said.

"Okay, so I finally got the golden egg to make some noise other than screeching-" Harry began.

"He put it under water," Sam added.

"Yeah, and it sung-"

"Sounded rather pretty, too,"

"It said 'Come seek us where our voices sound'-"

This time it was Hermione to interrupt. "The Black Lake. That's obvious."

"-'We can not sing above the ground'-"

"Mermaids. Mermaids can't sing above the ground," Sam nodded.

"-'An hour long you'll have to look'-"

"Again, obvious," Hermione said, leaning against the bookshelf and folding her arms. "Though admittedly, it is potentially problematic."

Harry's head shot up to stare at her in disbelief. "_Potentially problematic_?!" he repeated derisively. "Hermione, when was the last time you held your breath underwater for an hour?!"

"Look, Harry," Hermione said desperately, bending down next to him and clutching at his arm. While nobody was watching I kicked Ron's elbow off of the desk, causing him to wake up quickly and stare around in a daze. "We can figure this out, okay? We can!"

"Okay, so… I just got a whole lot of information there in a short period of time, so give me a minute to catch up," I said, as Sam continued flipping through a book he had in front of him. "So you have to go down to the lake and breathe underwater with mermaids for an hour? Just for fun or…?"

"They said I have to get something back from them," Harry told me.

"Oh! Motivating factor! I like it!" I chirped, and they all turned to look at me. "I mean… oh, _no."_ I said, lowering my voice and grimacing.

Soon enough, the others all went back to their books, and we worked in silence for around half an hour. That was when Ron snapped a book closed in frustration and let out a groan.

"It can't be done! It just can't be done!" He cried, irritated. "There's nothing. _Nothing_. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."

"Yeah, and I'm assuming if he drained an entire lake that might result in some points being taken away from him, in the long run," Sam mused, scratching his chin with his quill.

"There must be _something_," Hermione muttered determinedly, her face so close to the book she was reading that her nose was nearly touching the page. "They'd never set a task that was undoable."

Well, I guess they could. Would be one hell of a task to observe though.

"Look, Harry, just go down to the lake, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate," Ron advised.

I'm beginning to see why Ron isn't Triwizard Champion. With strategies like that he'd either lose or die in the first task.

"There has to be something!" Hermione snapped, flipping a page violently. Hermione seemed to be taking the lack of answers we were getting as a personal insult from the library.

"I know what I should have done," Harry mused, resting his face on the book he had been reading. "I should have learnt to be an animagus like Si-"

Hermione coughed very suddenly, and we all turned to look at her. She was glaring straight at Harry as she said "Oops, this book is a _little dusty."_

"Do you need water or something?" Sam asked, sounding concerned. Hermione gave a tight lipped smile and shook her head.

"I think being an animagus would be cool. You could turn into a goldfish or something," Ron said.

"That would never work," I dismissed. "I mean, if you were going to become an animagus, I don't think your first choice would be a goldfish."

For a few moments, we argued about this subject, until we were interrupted by Hermione letting out a frustrated puff of air and slamming her book shut. Buzz kill.

"This is no use!" she cried. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?!"

"I wouldn't mind," came Fred's voice from behind me, and I turned to see he and George standing there. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

"What are you two doing in here?" Ron asked.

"We were looking for you," George said. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. You too, Hermione."

"Why?" Hermione asked, sounding surprised.

"Dunno… she was looking a bit grim though," Fred said, shrugging.

"She wants you down in her office immediately," George added.

Hermione and Ron glanced at each other, before looking at Harry and Sam.

"We'll meet you in the Common Room later on," Hermione told them. "Bring as many books as you can."

Harry and Sam nodded. As Hermione and Ron stood up, George extended a hand down for me, smiling. I glanced over at Harry and Sam, and my little brother smiled encouragingly at me.

"You can go," Harry told me, "There's not a lot of information here, anyway."

Sam nodded. "We'll be fine, Bree."

I frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Harry smiled at me. "It'll be fine."

Nodding, I looked up at George and took his hand, allowing him to pull me to my feet. I leant down and gave Sam a one armed hug before I left the library with the others.

We parted with the fourth years when we reached the staircase, and their worried expressions made me worry slightly. The second task is tomorrow, and Harry still has no idea what he's doing. I can't believe he left it this late.

George bumped my shoulder gently with his to get my attention. "What are you thinking about, right now?" he asked quietly.

I sighed and thought about my answer. "I'm thinking that I wish we could go back to Christmas, when we weren't worrying about the Tournament for a little while. When we weren't worrying about anything but whether we could dance or whether my hair would stay in place. I want to be back at the Yule Ball."

George pursed his lips and nodded. After a few more steps, he suddenly stopped walking. I stopped too, turning around to see what he was doing.

"Then let's be at the Yule Ball," he said, extending his hand to me and bowing slightly. "May I have this dance, madam?"

I couldn't help but giggle as I looked down the hallways to see there was nobody else around. I stared at him to see if he was being serious, and soon placed my hand in his and he wrapped his fingers around mine. "Why, of course, good sir!"

George pulled me close to his chest, dancing the way that we had at the Yule Ball in the middle of the corridor. Without any music to guide me, it was difficult to keep up with the steps, and so when George twirled me out, I was completely unprepared, and ended up falling onto him as he went to twirl me back in.

Laughing loudly, George wrapped an arm around my waist and helped me steady myself on my own two feet.

"You two are insane," I heard Fred say from behind us, and I turned, still clutching at George, to see him shaking his head and trying to hide a smile. "It's past curfew, so dance your asses this way fast."

* * *

><p>The next morning brought the second Triwizard Task. Knowing what the task was, I was a bit worried for Cedric and Harry, but Katie didn't allow me to concentrate on my worry for very long.<p>

Chirpy as ever, Katie woke me up four hours before the task because nobody else was awake and she was bored. She dragged me out of bed, and surprisingly, despite the earliness of the hour, Fred and George did not meet us in the common room, but were already gone. We left the others to sleep in a little longer and made our way down to breakfast.

I saw Cedric at the Hufflepuff table when we went in to the Great Hall, so Katie and I sat with him. He seemed to be a bit jittery, but it was more a good type of nervousness than anything, and altogether he seemed prepared for what was to come. This made me think of Harry, who was not in the Hall yet, and I prayed that he'd lucked out last night flipping through those books. When we left the Hall about two hours later with Cedric and a recently awaken Lee and Angelina, Harry was still nowhere to be seen.

Cedric was quickly whisked away in the Entrance Hall by Professor McGonagall, and I gave him a quick hug and wished him luck before heading down through the grounds. We were nearing the Black Lake when we discovered where Fred and George had disappeared to.

"BETS! PLACE YOUR BETS!"

"BETS TAKEN HERE! STEP UP MATES, DON'T BE SHY!"

"THREE LADS-"

"ONE LADY-"

"FOUR GO DOWN-"

"BUT DO FOUR COME UP?"

I turned to see them with their home made betting tabs open again and walking through the crowds standing at the edge of the Black Lake. I saw a head of long red hair that I recognized as Ginny bump into them as we got closer.

"Don't be so mean," she chastised, before turning and walking away. Fred and George glanced at each other and shrugged, before turning back and yelling again.

"PLACE YOUR BETS!"

We approached the crowd to see that everyone was lining up to get into small boats that would take them to the middle of the lake, where three large platforms had been placed. They were multistorey with plenty of room for people to view the surrounding waters.

"How's the business going?" Angelina asked Fred as we reached the boys.

They turned and smiled at us brightly. "Fantastically! Though I think we may move to the platforms now, to get the teachers in on the fun," Fred answered enthusiastically, nodding.

I ended up in a boat with Fred and George, while Angelina shared with Victoria and Ruby, and Katie and Lee ended up together.

We were only a few meters away from the shore when Lee started giggling. We were close to their boat, so I looked over at him questioningly, about to ask what he was doing, when he began to rock the boat, startling Katie who was in front of him.

"LEE!" She screamed so loudly that people on the stations in the middle of the lake turned to look at us. "QUIT IT!"

"Woah! What's rocking the boat, Katie?!" he laughed maniacally, still moving his whole body to rock the boat. "Don't fall Katie! Don't fall- UGH!"

Katie threw herself away from where she thought Lee was, but he leant in the same direction simultaneously. The force of both of their bodies on one side of the boat forced it to twist, flinging the both of them into the water as the boat flopped upside down and began floating away from them.

My hands shot to my mouth as I let out a cry of surprise. Katie emerged from the dark waters first, splashing around and coughing. Lee emerged then, shaking out his dreadlocks and spraying Katie with water. She let out a yell and dived at him, pushing him under the water. He reemerged a second later, looking like he was trying really hard not to laugh, when Katie spat a mouthful of water at his face.

They both started laughing simultaneously, and Lee quickly swam away to retrieve their boat, which Angelina was leaning out of her boat to keep it from floating any further away. Katie clutched at the side of our boat as Fred and George leant the other way to keep it balanced, as I held Katie's hand to keep her up and laughed, unable to seem to stop myself.

It's like the people of Hogwarts just wait for Lee and Katie to do something totally ridiculous when they're together. They're never disappointed. People from the shore and the platforms were all looking at us and laughing.

Lee held the boat still while Katie clambered her way in. Fred and George held the boat still while Lee attempted to get back into the boat, but he managed to fall back down three times before a large tentacle pushed him up and helped him get his whole body back into the boat.

Lee leant back over the edge to try and catch sight of the giant squid that lived in these waters, yelling out "Thanks buddy!"

Bubbles disturbing the surface were his only response.

Katie punched him on the arm, and he looked up at her from sitting on the floor of the boat, in between her legs. They both looked like drowned rats, and I couldn't help but start giggling again at the sight of them.

It took us about twenty minutes longer than anyone else to get to the middle of the lake, with the people still in boats behind us taking about five minutes tops to make their way there.

As soon as we climbed out of the boats and up the ladders, Lee and Katie had towels thrust into their faces.

"Why is it always you two?!" McGonagall burst out, looking enraged. "I can't leave you to do _anything_ without something like this happening!"

George grabbed my elbow and steered me away from the quickly deteriorating scene. Whereas the people around them had laughed at first, as McGonagall raged they all turned around uncomfortably, not wanting to be the next one hit with her anger.

We were just pushing through the crowd towards the stairs leading up to the next level when an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back, out of George's grip. Stumbling, I looked up at James' grinning face.

"Breezy!" He cried, leaning down to hug me closer. As per usual, he looked completely unphased by the Tournament. He also looked… tanner.

"James, have you been tanning?" I asked, not quite as amazed as I would have been at anyone less vain than James.

He just nodded, giving me a 'duh, obviously' look.

"It's winter!" I said, trying not to laugh.

Looking at me completely seriously, all he said was "You have to be dedicated to look this good, Bree. In fact…"

He paused, stepping back from me and ripping his shirt over his head, throwing it at his feet and turning to flex his biceps. "Hard work, baby. Very visible results, though. Here," he took my hand and brought it closer to his tensing muscles, "Feel free to touch."

I snatched my hand back and couldn't keep from laughing any longer. Especially when I turned and saw Fred and George's completely identical looks of disgusted confusion as they stared at James.

That was when Persephone popped up at our side. Her eyes immediately fell to James' biceps and she nodded. "So the extra time it took for us to sneak that exercise machine on to the carriage actually helped."

At this, Fred and George turned their disbelieving looks to Persephone.

"JAMES!" Bagman cried, hurrying up to us. "Come on, my boy, we're about to start the challenge!"

He grabbed James' arm and physically pulled him away from us. We pushed our way to the front of the crowd to stand by the Champions, and I saw Cedric looking a bit nervous, and Harry looking positively terrified.

Lee and Katie approached us then, towels wrapped around their shoulders and grins on both of their faces.

"No detention," Katie announced when she reached us. "Just the lecture."

"Yeah, and by the end, I think she was more amused than anything," Lee added, nodding. I highly doubted that.

At that moment, Dumbledore's voice cut over the loud chants around us, magically heightened in volume.

"Welcome to the second task. Last night, something was stolen from each of our champions. A treasure of sorts." Persephone let out a loud cheer for James at that point, and he looked up at us, winking and blowing a kiss. I laughed slightly at him, and I blew one back. "These five treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the Black Lake. In order to win, each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough, except for this: they will have but one hour to do so, and one hour only. After that, they'll be on their own." Something began going wrong at this point. As Dumbledore continued speaking, Harry doubled over completely and began coughing loudly. "No magic will save them. The task begins at the sound of the cannon."

The cannon fired at that time. Cedric, James, Fleur, and Viktor all dived into the water, but Harry merely folded more in on himself and coughed harder, seemingly unaware the cannon had even been fired.

At that moment, Moody shoved Harry hard in the back, propelling him so that he fell off of the platform and into the water, still choking. I let out a shocked gasp and watched the water where he disappeared in horror.

It was impossible to see anything under the murky water, and Harry didn't immediately reemerge.

George leant further over the railing, his eyebrows knitting together in concern, as he muttered, "What's the matter with him?"

"I don't know! Can you see him?!" Fred demanded, his eyes scanning the water for any sign of him.

At that moment, Harry came bursting out of the water, flipping in midair and screaming in elation. We all jumped back from the rail, and I let out a relieved laugh.

When nothing else happened for a few moments, we all seemed to realize at once that this would be a lot more boring than the first task. The action was happening below water, and all we had was Dumbledore's occasional narration of nothing of any importance. The crowd quickly dispersed, heading higher to try and get the best view for if something actually did happen. I stayed leaning against the railing, my head resting on my hands and staring into the water.

"Is that the kind of guy you're into, then?" George asked out of the blue, still staring out over the water. His voice was quiet, almost private, but Katie, Lee, and Fred were talking so animatedly they wouldn't have heard him anyway.

"Hm?" I asked, drawing my eyes from the motionless water to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Like," he seemed to search for the right words, still not looking at me. "Muscled, tanned, cocky… you know, like James."

I couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Oh, Merlin, no, George. Definitely not like James. I don't think I have a type," I said, shrugging.

"But you like Jason," he stated, still not looking at me.

Trying to hide a blush, I shrugged. "I barely know Jason. He's a friend."

Before George could answer, a voice drawled from behind us, "I see you and your friends got into some trouble before you even made it here. You delayed the whole task; it's just rude."

Fred and George simultaneously sighed, and turned around, saying, "Hello, Percy," in the most unenthused tone they could muster.

"Hi, Percy," I said, a lot more politely than them. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm quite good. I'm here on official ministry business, you know, Mr. Crouch is still very unwell and sent me to be a judge in his place." Percy, for lack of a better word, bragged.

"That's very exciting!" I told him, smiling.

Percy gave me a very brief smile, but it was the first sincere smile I'd ever gotten from him, so I'd gladly take it.

"Yeah, so how much longer are we going to be seeing you around the school, Percy?" Fred asked, trying and failing to be convincing as he grinned at his brother.

Percy didn't pick up on the sarcasm. "I'm not sure; Mr. Crouch doesn't seem to be getting any better. It is a bit worrying, but I just do what his letters tell me on a day to day basis."

Before the twins could say anything, I spoke up. "Have you spoken to Mr. Crouch recently? Has he said what's wrong with him?"

"Well- no, I haven't actually spoken to him, but as I said I receive letters daily so I do know how he's doing. I don't actually know what's wrong with him though, no…"

I couldn't help but feel a little bit concerned for Mr. Crouch, and at the same time a little bit suspicious at his continued absence and no direct contact with anyone.

At that moment, Dumbledore's voice echoed around us. "The Beauxbatons Champion, Miss Delacour, has unfortunately been forced to retire. She will take no further part in this task."

"Oh! I have to go!" Percy cried, and hurried off. I turned to Fred and George then.

"Do you think it's a bit suspicious? Mr. Crouch's absence, I mean." I asked the twins.

They both shrugged. "Honestly? Percy probably has him locked away in the cellar of his house so he can continue having such a large role in the tournament," Fred answered.

I bit my lip, unsure, as Fred turned away. George frowned and looked like he was about to say something else when the people around us erupted in loud cheers.

I turned quickly back to the water to see Cedric bobbing around in the water, taking deep breaths and grinning. I saw Cho floating next to him in her school robes, and realized that the treasure that the mermaids had taken was a person, not a thing, and was temporarily shocked. But then Cedric raised his fist triumphantly in the air and I let out a cheer, pushing through the crowd to get to where he would be emerging from the water.

When he climbed the ladder, I grabbed the closest towel and threw it around him before I hugged him. "Cedric! You did it!"

One of his friends from beside me yelled "First place!" over the continued cheers surrounding us.

Cedric hugged me tighter to him for a moment and let out an elated laugh, before he pulled back and was swarmed by his friends. He somehow drew Cho Chang from her friends back into his arms, kissing the top of her head as someone grabbed his arm and raised it victoriously. Cho looked slightly embarrassed, but mostly just in awe of Cedric. It was really very sweet.

Dumbledore and Bagman swooped in then, drawing Cedric and Cho away to a small room in the middle of the platform. Katie and Sam appeared at my side then, and I spotted Fleur Delacour standing across the platform, biting her nails nervously and staring worriedly out into the water.

"What Dumbledore said, about them 'being on their own' after the hour… I mean… they wouldn't actually leave the most important person in Fleur's life for the mermaids to have, would they?" Sam asked, having also seen her.

"No," Katie said immediately, looping an arm around Sam's shoulders. "There's no way. It'll be fine, Sam."

I just looked at them and couldn't hide a smile at my shy little brother getting along so well with this loudmouthed girl I now counted as one of my closest friends. Though coming to Hogwarts wasn't my decision, moments like this make me realize how glad I am that I did.

At that moment, another cheer went out, and my head shot up to see James with his arms above his head victoriously. Again, I hurried over to meet him. Callie was in the water with him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders as he supported her on his back. Callie and James had always understood each other perfectly, and had always been very close. It made sense that she was the so called treasure he had to get back.

Before I had even reached them, another cheer went up, and Viktor and Hermione rose to the surface of the water. Callie broke away from the large crowd gathered around James and came to stand with me, looping her arm through mine. "Well, that was interesting," she said conversationally, as though talking about going for a stroll in the park instead of being held hostage underwater by merpeople for hours.

Soon enough, Callie was whisked away to the enclosed room, along with James, Viktor, and Hermione. James was absolutely loving the attention, waving at people like a big celebrity would at a concert.

And then we waited.

And waited.

I wandered back over to where Fred and George were leaning against the railing again, staring out into the water in search of any sign of the only remaining champion.

Glancing at my watch, I saw that it was past the allocated hour mark, and still nothing. Fred and George were starting to get fidgety, and I know it was because Ron was the treasure Harry was meant to retrieve.

"Where is he? It shouldn't be taking him this long…" Sam muttered nervously.

I saw a flash of orange from my peripheral vision, and turned to see Ron barely staying afloat in the water, a little girl with blonde hair next to him. Fleur went rushing towards the ladder, and I knew it had to be her sister. Fred and George were cheering louder than they had thus far, leaning out over the railing and clapping their hands together.

However, there was still no sign of Harry.

I scanned the water nervously, and I knew Sam was doing the same from beside me. No matter where I looked, I couldn't see the wild black hair I was looking for.

Fred and George had left to greet their brother, and I was just heading over there myself when, with a loud splash, Harry was propelled out of the water, landing on the platform with a loud thwack. Immediately, Sam ran over there, and I followed quickly to see Harry on all fours, coughing loudly with water flowing from his mouth, and desperately trying to inhale some air at the same time.

At that moment, Hermione appeared, throwing a towel around Harry and talking a mile a minute. Ron, too, was babbling.

"Harry, you didn't actually take that song seriously, did you? Dumbledore wouldn't have let any of us drown! I hope you didn't waste time down there playing the hero!" Ron cried, before he was suddenly cut off by Percy throwing another towel around him and pulling him further from the edge of the water. Harry was starting to look very depressed, so I took that to mean he had indeed wasted time playing the hero. That, or he was still having trouble breathing.

Fred grinned widely. "Merlin, Harry, you sure do know how to make an impression!"

From around us, Karkaroff was leading his students in a furious chant of Krum's name, with the headmaster getting louder and more violent as time passed. This was broken, however, when Dumbledore's magically enhanced voice began speaking again.

"Attention! Attention! The winner is… Cedric Diggory!" At this, a loud cheer went through the crowd; one that I enthusiastically participated in. "With the use of the bubble headed charm. However, seeing as Mr. Potter would have finished first if not for his determination to rescue all of the hostages, not just Mr. Weasley, we have decided to award him…" I could actually feel all of the people around me holding their breath in that moment, "second place! For outstanding morale fiber!"

Harry just gaped as Hermione threw herself at him. As we all cheered, I dived down to hug him, too, and never able to resist anything done with even the mildest enthusiasm, Katie joined in, too. Soon, there was a large pile on Harry, as we all cheered for him.

Karkaroff was actually swearing in Bulgarian, he was so pissed off.

"The third and final task shall take place at dusk on the twenty fourth of June," Dumbledore continued. "The champions will be notified of what is coming, precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

Karkaroff had barely listened, still seeming to be swearing and muttering to himself. I, however, felt more sorry for James than I did for him. During the excited chatter where we all lined up to board the boats heading back to the shore (where McGonagall separated Katie and Lee almost immediately), I caught up to him. Callie had her arm wrapped around his, pulling her towel closer around her with her other hand, bouncing on the balls of her feet and looking as chipper as ever.

"I'm sorry you lost second place, James," I said. "It wasn't really fair for you."

James scoffed. "Harry deserved_ first_ place. The kid was already down there when I arrived, to make sure that everybody got back up safely. He's pretty amazing for someone who's been through such a huge amount of shit."

Callie and I both smiled at his answer, as he continued.

"I mean, winning would be fun, but a desperation to win wasn't why I entered the Tournament. I wanted to bring some glory to myself and to the school, but it was mostly just because I wanted to prove that I could do it. And guess what? I can."

Callie squeezed his arm and he looked down, smiling gently at her.

James may have been a vain bitch sometimes, but he cared. James cared so much it hurt him sometimes, and by the front he presents to the world, I don't think a lot of people know that. He was kind, and he gave always saw the bright side of things. James would bitch about how my jeans didn't match my shoes, but that's not what's important. He gives people chances, and not a lot of people do that anymore. I threw myself forwards and hugged James around the waist, almost pushing him over. With a startled laugh, he hugged me back, and soon I felt Callie wrap her arms around me from behind and join in.

"I'm so lucky to have you guys in my life," I murmured, and I knew they heard me by the way they both tightened their grip on me.

Pulling away, I immediately felt another arm wrap around my shoulders, and looked up to see George smiling down at me gently. Harry was with him, and James immediately stepped forward to shake his hand enthusiastically and congratulate him, letting him know without words that there was no bad blood for James being knocked back a spot for Harry.

"What do you know, all that morale fiber finally came in handy," Fred laughed jokingly.

Ron nodded, "Blimey, Harry, even when you go wrong it turns out right!"

"Yeah, well done, _morale fiber,"_ George added, grinning and patting the dark haired boy on the back.

Lee was chattering to Sam and Neville somewhere behind us, already coming up with outlandish theories for what the third task would be. "Vampires," he said, with complete certainty. "Why a task at night? Because they're going to pit the champions against Vampires. It only seems logical."

"I just…" Sam glanced at Neville nervously. "I really don't think it seems likely, Lee…"

"No, I have it on _very_ good authority that it's what the task will be," Lee nodded, and I slapped his arm, drawing a bright grin and wink from him.

I have no doubt I'll be treated to multiple other Lee theories for what the third task will be before June.

As we boarded the boats, everybody was still chattering happily.

"Harry, you did it, you and Cedric are tied for first place! We're certain of a Hogwarts win now, I know it!" Katie burst out excitedly. "BRING ON THE TWENTY FOUTH OF JUNE!"

"You got this Potter!" Lee yelled triumphantly. "The third task will be the easiest yet!"

* * *

><p><strong>These chapters are getting longer and longer, I swear. Nothing too big happening this chapter, but my writing style is 'keep typing and see where you end up,' so that's why the chapters are always so long.<strong>

**Bree gets pretty sentimental sometimes. Sorry about that.**

**OKAY, so the second task is over with. I always figured the viewing would be boring as hell for everyone on the platforms (and now I think of it, for the maze as well. I guess all you'd see would be the maze moving as it blows in the wind every now and then, and for the second task, it would just be ripples in the water), so there you go. I do what I can, and I really, really hope you enjoyed it!**

**ALSO, I want to thank thegirlwholived, who I can't reply to through the reviews, but I want to thank because I think it's one of the nicest things I've gotten for this story!**


	11. Lee Can't Apparate

The days following the second task, the Champions and the people they'd had to rescue were the centre of attention, because everybody was keen to hear what had gone down beneath the water in the lake. Ron was loving sharing Harry's fame, and every time he told his story the details got more and more outlandish. At first, he told what seemed to be the truth (it was the same as Hermione's story then, anyway); Dumbledore had put all of the hostages into a bewitched sleep in McGonagall's office, first assuring them that they would be quite safe, and would awake when they were back above the water. A week later, he was telling a thrilling tale of kidnap in which he struggled single-handedly against fifty heavily armed merpeople who had to beat him into submission before tying him up. Cho stuck to the original story, but James and Callie seemed amused enough by Ron's tale that it became their permanent story. The only difference was that James added in a fight for survival down in the lake where he took on the entire population of merpeople while Callie was trapped in a cage, slowly running out of air. It was like a really bad novel.

The only downside to their little story was that Victoria was genuinely pissed off. She'd been quite loving the title of James' date to the Yule Ball, but when he brought Callie back up from the lake, showing her off as being his 'greatest treasure,' she was shot into a pretty filthy mood. Too bad. James felt pretty bad about the whole thing, but explained that he was kind of glad. She was friendly and he of course loved the attention she gave him, but he said it got to be a bit too much. So that's that, I suppose.

Hermione had been in a bit of a down mood since she was rescued from the lake, after being teased over being the thing Viktor would miss the most. I thought it was rather sweet. In her foul mood, she quickly shot down Ron's elaborate tales, and he nervously went back to telling the original story. Callie and James didn't.

As March approached, the weather became drier, and frankly this huge workload was really starting to get to all of us. Even Fred and George were doing more work. I'd enlisted the help of Cedric to be my personal Charms tutor, and it was definitely one of the best decisions I could have made. The boy was a whiz at the subject, so my grades were dramatically improving. Of course, it took a few lessons for us to actually start doing any work and not just chatting… I've always been a bit of a chatterer. So sue me, I could talk underwater.

I had a double free period the last Friday before the Hogsmeade weekend, and found myself in need of a book I'd leant to Harry to finish my homework towards the end of it. I mean, I could wait to get it later, but I was just in the _zone_ with Charms, and figured I'd lose my thought process if I left it too long to finish. So I trooped down to the Potions classroom and prayed that Snape was in a good enough mood.

Apparently he was, because his students filed past me twenty minutes before the end of class. Draco resolutely ignored me, and I just rolled my eyes. He was such a moody bitch sometimes. Or all the time. Whatever.

Harry didn't pass me, so I assumed he was still in the classroom. I entered gloomy room and immediately spotted him on the floor, gathering up pieces of a broken bottle, and I ducked down quickly next to him.

"Here, let me help you-" His hand shot up in front of his mouth in a shushing gesture, and he nodded his head towards the front of the room, looking strained.

That was when I heard Snape's voice, and another I didn't immediately recognize. I'd completely missed them when I came into the room, and apparently they hadn't seen me either, because they seemed to be having a private conversation. A peak around the corner of the table told me that Snape was speaking to Karkaroff, who had his left sleeve pushed up to his elbow, and was wildly gesturing for Snape to look at something on his forearm.

"Do you see?!" Karkaroff demanded wildly. "It's never been this clear, never since-"

"Put it away!" snarled Snape, his dark eyes sweeping the classroom. Harry and I both ducked further behind the desk.

"You must have noticed-" Karkaroff began in an agitated voice.

"We can talk later, Karkaroff," Snape said stiffly, before he caught sight of me and his eyes went wide. "Montero! What are you doing in my classroom!"

"I came to see Harry, and he spilt his armadillo bile, sir," I told him in my best innocent voice. Harry stood then, holding the sodden rag he'd been using to wipe up the liquid, and I held out the fragments of glass I'd collected. Snape's eyes widened even further seeing Harry, and his lips quickly twisted into a frown.

Karkaroff, looking both worried and angry, turned and strode out of the classroom. Not really wanting to stay with Snape (who looked angry enough to start throwing detentions_ and_ punches), Harry grabbed his things and we hurried out of the room.

"What the hell was all that about?!" I asked when I figured we were far enough away from the dungeon.

Harry just shook his head. "I don't know, but I don't think I like it."

* * *

><p>The next day, the Daily Prophet's main title read <em>'Mystery Illness of Bartemius Crouch.' <em>Certain phrases jumped out at me, such as _'hasn't been seen in public since November' … 'house appears deserted' … 'St Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries decline comment' … 'Ministry refuses to confirm rumors of a critical illness.' _

I really don't like this.

"You can't tell me this doesn't look suspicious!" I cried, thrusting the paper in front of George as he went to take a bite of his toast. He dropped the bread and took the paper from me, reading the title.

"Well, I mean… yeah, sure, but Percy's still getting daily letters from him, so he can't be that unwell." George shrugged.

I snatched the paper back and flipped through to about the third page. The article was titled _'Ministry Witch Still Missing- Minister for Magic Now Personally Involved.'_

"Seriously! Some_ serious_ shit is going on and I don't like it!" I said.

"Calm the fuck down, Detective Montero," Lee managed to say through a mouth full of oats. He swallowed and continued. "It's just the Prophet stirring shit."

At that moment, a Slytherin girl appeared at my shoulder. She leant down, laid the most recent Witch Weekly in front of Hermione, and grinned tauntingly. "You might find something to interest you in there, Granger."

I looked over Hermione's shoulder to see what she meant, and Katie leant over me to see, too. Harry read it from beside Hermione.

_'Harry Potter's Secret Heartache'_ was the title. Already, I wasn't getting great vibes from this article.

'_A boy like no other, perhaps- yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen year old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss._

_Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone can not satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and the hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger had been toying with both boys affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the Summer holidays, and insists that he has 'never felt this way about any other girl.'_

_However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms which have captures these unfortunate boys interests. _

"_She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth year student, "but she'd be well up to making a love potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it."_

_Love potions are of course banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potter's well wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate.'_

Katie snorted and then burst into loud laughter. "_Pretty and vivacious_?" she quoted, grinning snidely at the girl who I assumed was Pansy. "_You_?! Really?!"

Pansy's self satisfied smirk had fallen to a snarling expression. She turned on her heel and stalked away, looking put out.

"Ridiculous," Hermione said simply, folding up the article and continuing to eat.

"I don't know, Hermione," Lee said seriously. "Brewing love potions is serious business. Do we need to have a talk about this?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, and Katie flipped the magazine back to the cover. "Ugh, of course it was that troll Rita Skeeter."

Seeming completely unconcerned, Hermione shrugged. "If that's the best she can do, she's beginning to lose her touch." With that, she looked over at the Slytherin crowd around the Pansy girl, who were watching her as though eagerly anticipating some kind of mental breakdown. She gave them a sarcastic smile and a wave, and they all looked disappointed.

"There's something funny, though…" Hermione muttered, seemingly to herself. We all looked up at her questioningly and she blushed. "I just… How could Rita Skeeter have known that… that Viktor asked me to stay with him over the Summer?"

Ron dropped his fork with a loud clatter onto his plate, and my jaw actually dropped open.

"What!" Katie squealed.

"_What_?!" Ron demanded, his voice turning darker and expression more sour. George knocked the bottom of my jaw and I closed my mouth, still staring wide eyed at the bushy haired girl.

"He asked me right after he pulled me out of the lake," she muttered, "After he'd gotten rid of his sharks head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said, if I wasn't doing anything over the Summer, would I like to-"

"And what did you say?!" Ron interrupted, who had picked up his fork and was clutching it so hard his knuckles were turning white.

"-And he _did_ say he's never felt this way about anyone else," Hermione went on, ignoring Ron and blushing so red I could almost feel the heat coming from her. Katie let out another high pitched "_What!"_ and I nodded along in shock.

"But how did she hear?" Hermione asked, "She wasn't there… or was she? Maybe she has an invisibility cloak… maybe she sneaks into the grounds to watch the tasks…"

"And what did you _say_?!" Ron repeated, glaring and throwing his fork down.

"Well, I was too busy seeing whether you and Harry were okay to give a real answer," Hermione said honestly. Ron just frowned in response.

Katie and I eagerly looked at her, waiting for more. When she said nothing, I prompted her.

"_Well_?! What are you going to tell him?!"

She began blushing again and shrugged. "I'm not really sure."

Katie looked like she was going to squeal again, but taking note of Ron's expression, Harry interrupted. "Er… we should be getting to Hogsmeade."

"Yes!" Hermione cried, eagerly jumping on anything that would get her out of discussing her love life. "Let's go!"

Katie rolled her eyes as they left, before turning to me and saying "We'll talk to her about this later."

I nodded my agreement, as Fred and George stood up.

"Where are you two headed off to?" Lee asked pleasantly, and they glanced at each other before answering.

"Business to attend to," Fred said shortly, and they left us, following the fourth years out of the Great Hall.

We stared after them in silence for a moment, before I asked, "Does anyone else feel like they're up to no good?"

Katie shrugged. "I always kind of feel like that."

I guess I kind of have to agree.

* * *

><p>We began the next day with a pleasant surprise for us sixth years. Overnight, a large sign had been pinned to the notice board.<p>

_APPARITION LESSONS_

_If you are seventeen years of age, or will turn seventeen on or before the 31__st__ of August, you are eligible for a twelve week course of Apparition Lessons from a Ministry of Magic Apparition Instructor. _

_Please sign below if you would like to participate._

_Cost: 12 Galleons._

I excitedly signed my name at the bottom of the notice, along with my friends. Katie was frowning and looked like she was going to start stomping her foot on the ground like a child any second. "That's so unfair! I should be able to take Apparition classes!"

Angelina held no sympathy for her. "You can do it next year. Besides, another year will give you plenty of time to work on yourself. You need to be level headed and calm to apparate successfully… You're neither."

Katie flared up instantly, proving Angelina right. "I'm plenty calm!"

Patting her on the head condescendingly, Lee interrupted their brewing fight. "I for one am very excited for being able to apparate."

Alicia nodded. "I've always wanted to do it."

"You know, I have actually done it before." Lee nodded, looking thoroughly impressed with himself, and Katie looked thoughtful.

"Really?"

"Oh yes. Yes, plenty of times. Only side along Apparition, but still." Lee continued to brag, as George leant down to whisper into my ear.

"I would bet my life on the fact that he's never apparated before," I grinned up at him and nodded my agreement.

Fred rolled his eyes and stopped Lee from bragging any further. "When can we take the actual test?"

"As soon as you're seventeen, I think," I answered, and Fred grinned.

"Excellent, that's only April for us!"

"But you can't apparate inside the school anyway…" Katie pointed out.

"Well that's not the point, is it? I mean, everyone would know that I_ could _Apparate if I wanted to."

We'd reached the Charms classroom by this stage. Katie waved goodbye, still quite sullenly, and continued along the corridor as Flitwick ushered us inside. Flitwick was a lovely, tiny man, who was always pretty cheery and eager to teach, but today when we were all seated he took one look at us still chattering about Apparition and decided to just not even bother.

With a wave of his wand a goblet appeared in front of every student. "Continue with your work from last lesson, producing a fountain of pure water; I'd like to see some improvement from most of you." His gaze fell on Angelina and I before moving on to stare down some more slow learners.

I wasn't too stressed; Cedric and I had worked on this during our last tutoring session.

"I hate doing things like this," Fred said, vaguely twirling his wand in his fingers. "It's such bland stuff, you know? Where's the useful stuff?"

"This could be useful!" Alicia defended, creating a perfect fountain of water into her cup. She's just saying that because she's good at it.

"When? I can get water from the tap," Fred argued.

"What if you go camping and you run out of water?" Alicia suggested.

"I could always apparate to a water source nearby."

"What if you don't pass the Apparition test?"

Fred looked scandalized by this comment. "Of course I'm going to pass the Apparition test! What are you suggesting?!"

Throwing her arms up in annoyance, Alicia snapped "I'm not suggesting anything! You've never done it before; you don't know how difficult it will be!"

Lee popped his hand in the air smugly and grinned. "As I have Apparated before, I can safely say that you will pass with flying colors."

A girl from next to us looked over at Lee suddenly. Her two friends soon looked, too, when she tapped Lee on the shoulder and brought his attention to them. "You've Apparated before?"

Fred flopped his head down onto the desk with a loud groan, as Lee shot us a confident grin before turning to the girls and turning on the charm. "Why yes, ladies, I have."

"What does it feel like?" one of the girls asked in wonder.

"It's difficult to explain," Lee said (Fred muttered "because you don't know what it feels like" and Lee ignored him). "It's definitely not a bad feeling, oh no. No, no, no. Quite pleasant, really. Just…" he clicked his fingers together, "and you're gone!"

Soaking up the girl's awe of him, he waved his wand a little too enthusiastically, so that the gentle stream of water he was trying to create turned into a hose like jet that ricocheted off of the bookcase and knocked Professor Flitwick flat onto his face.

My hand shot to cover my mouth as Lee's head snapped up to stare at Flitwick, completely horrified with himself. The girls Lee had been chatting to looked a lot less impressed by the time Flitwick had finished telling Lee off and set him a few hundred lines of 'I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick.'

* * *

><p>I didn't see Harry, Ron and Hermione until next Sunday at breakfast; the day we were due to start our Apparition lessons. Sam was back with them this time, having skipped the last Hogsmeade trip to tutor Seamus in Herbology. Sam was a whiz at Herbology, much like Toby. I always figured he'd follow in Toby's footsteps and go into becoming a healer when he left school because of it, but I guess we'll see.<p>

Anyway, Katie led us to sit with the fourth years for breakfast because we still hadn't heard any more about Hermione and Viktor's love story, and she was getting impatient. The post owls began to arrive as soon as we sat down, and this distracted Katie from immediately assaulting her with questions, because about four or five birds landed in front of Hermione at once.

They all bustled forwards, vying for her attention, as two more landed beside them.

"What in the world…" Hermione muttered, taking a letter from one of the birds and opening it. Her eyes narrowed as she read it. "Oh… _really_!" she spluttered, throwing the letter down and blushing.

I reached over and picked up the letter. It wasn't handwritten, but instead was composed of pasted letters that seemed to be cut out from the Daily Prophet.

_You are a WickEd giRL. HaRRy PottEr deserves BetteR. go BacK where you caME from mUggle._

"Hate mail?" I asked incredulously, looking up. "Seriously?"

"Oh, they're all like it!" Hermione cried desperately. "_'Harry Potter can do better than the likes of you…'_" she read aloud.

"This ones quite colorful," Katie chirped happily, having opened a few of the letters herself. "_'You deserve to be boiled in frog spawn…' _Harry, I had no idea you had so many dedicated fans."

"Ouch!" Hermione cried, and Katie waved her off, still reading through the letters.

"Calm down, Hermione, it wasn't that much of a cutting remark."

The strong smell of petrol suddenly hit me and I gagged slightly, looking over at Hermione. I gasped when I saw that the last envelope she'd opened has been full of a sticky green liquid that had gushed over her hands and caused large yellow boils to erupt there.

"Undiluted bubotuber pus!" Sam exclaimed in horror, grabbing a napkin and attempting to wipe the liquid off of her hands. However, her fingers were now so heavily covered in painful sores that it looked as though she was wearing a pair of thick, knobbly gloves.

Hermione's eyes were quickly tearing up, so Sam stood and pulled her arm so she would follow him. "Come on, I'll take you to the Hospital Wing…"

When they were gone, Ron turned to us with wide eyes and slammed his fist down on the table. "I told her!" he burst out. "I told her not to mess with Rita Skeeter!"

"You know this will just make her even more determined to get back at her?" I told him, and he furiously shook his head.

Lee shrugged his shoulders and spoke through a mouthful of croissant. "What can Skeeter write about her next, though, and still keep it reasonably believable?"

I made a face and reached over to shut his mouth so he wouldn't keep chewing as widely as he was. "Will you please stop being so disgusting when you eat?! Swallow and then speak!"

Lee swallowed his mouthful of food and glared at me, his shoulders slumping. "Yes Mum," he muttered.

An hour later, everybody was out of the Hall and the four tables had disappeared. It had begun to rain outside and I frowned up at the high, enchanted ceiling. Looking at the sky was something that I loved to do during mealtimes; I thought it was so soothing. However, it looked like a bit of a cyclone out there at the moment.

"What?" Fred asked, seeing my frown.

I gestured up at the rainy sky. "That's not a good sign."

"Seriously?" George asked, before shaking his head at me. "Sometimes I don't even think you_ need_ to be bullshitting as much as you are in Divination."

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly and he snapped his teeth at it, making me push my head back away from him with a loud laugh.

Just then, the doors to the Great Hall pushed open again and I turned to see most of the Walden students entering. I'd wondered if they were going to take the classes in England or wait until they got back to America, so I suppose that answers my question.

Callie and James ended up next to me, and Ben shot me an encouraging smile from where he stood a few meters away with Persephone.

A loud throat clearing from the front of the room drew my attention, and I looked up to see it had been McGonagall. She was standing with her arms folded impatiently next to Flitwick, who was cheerily rocking on his heels; Sprout, who was brushing some dirt off of her shirt; and Snape, who was just glaring around as per usual. They do suit their Houses, don't they? Standing in front of them was a tiny man who was oddly colorless; he looked like a paint pallet that had been washed off but still held some residue of the colors formally on it. It was really odd. His eyebrows and thin hair were almost transparent and looked very close to being a ghost. I wonder if that's from constant Apparating. Man, I nearly shuddered at the thought of losing all my color from Apparition. I mean, would they allow us to do it if that was a side effect?

"Good morning," the man said politely. "My name is Wilkie Twycross and I shall be your Ministry Apparition Instructor for the next twelve weeks. I hope to be able to prepare you for your Apparition test in this time, so that hopefully many of you will be ready to take the test on your seventeenth birthday. As many of you know, it is usually impossible to Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts. The Headmaster has lifted this enchantment, purely within the Great Hall, for one hour, so as to enable you to practice. May I emphasize that you will not be able to Apparate outside the walls of this Hall, and that you would be unwise to try. I would now like each of you to place yourselves so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you."

Lee pushed Angelina out of his space and she stumbled towards me, spinning back around to glare at him. I ended up in the middle of Lee and George, and I patiently threaded my fingers together whilst I stood in my place, as Fred addressed Lee.

"Fantastic! You should be an expert at Apparating, Lee, so you can guide us through it!"

Lee winked. "I think you should just listen to Twycross for now. Maybe I can give you a one on one session in a few weeks time, if you're lucky."

I rolled my eyes as Twycross waved his wand and a large wooden hoop appeared in front of every person. "The important things to remember when Apparating are the three D's!" he said loudly. "Destination, Determination, Deliberation."

Nervously, I glanced around. Thankfully, I didn't look like the only one who was a bit nervous about the three D's.

"Step one: fix your mind firmly upon the desired _destination,"_ said Twycross. "In this case, the interior of your hoop. Kindly concentrate upon that destination now."

I stared down into the wooden hoop in front of me as Twycross continued. "Step two: focus your _determination_ to occupy the visualized space! Let your yearning to enter it flood from your mind to every particle of your body!"

Flow to every particle of my body? How do you even do that?! This is starting to sound like a Divination lesson. I glanced around to see what everybody else was doing, and noticed that a lot of people, like me, were looking a bit confused with the instructions so far. I glanced over to see James staring into his hoop with such concentration that his face was turning slightly pink.

"Step three," called Twycross, "and only when I give the command… turn on the spot, feeling your way into nothingness, moving with _deliberation_! On my command, now… one-"

My head shot up. Is he actually asking us to apparate after five minutes of lessons?! A nervous glance around told me that I wasn't the only one who looked alarmed by this.

"-two-"

Oh, Merlin, I've already forgotten the three D's!

"-three!"

I spun on the spot, lost my balance, and toppled over onto Lee, falling with him onto the ground before he had any chance to do anything.

"BREE!" He yelled. "I was about to Apparate!"

"No you weren't, you prat, you can't apparate!" Fred yelled back, but I paid no attention to either of them.

I'd looked up from the floor just in time to see James doing a kind of pirouetting leap into his hoop. He looked momentarily thrilled, thinking he'd Apparated, until he looked over and saw George and I laughing at him loudly. George was doubled over in his laughter, and I couldn't even manage to stand up; Lee just pulled me up by the back of my shirt and pushed me away from him, still arguing with Fred over his ability to Apparate. McGonagall shot them a glare and they shut their mouths with one last glare at each other.

"Never mind, never mind…" Twycross said dryly, not looking like he'd really expected much better than a few people falling over and a few more arguing with each other. "Adjust your hoops, please, and back to your original positions…"

The second attempt was no better than the first, with me ending up landing on my stomach on the ground, while George nearly tripped over me. By the third attempt, half of our row had stopped trying, instead following Fred's lead and just staring at Lee attempting to Apparate.

By the sixth try, Lee had gotten fed up and spun to face us. "I can't do it with you guys watching me! I can't do it under pressure!"

"You can't do it at all," Fred said flatly, and Lee glared at him before shooting his glare back to the hoop. He just stared at it for a solid five minutes, and we'd just lost interest and turned away when Lee let out a large yelp and we all spun back around to look at him.

Lee was wobbling in his circle, staring back in absolute horror at his left leg still standing five feet away where he'd started.

My hand shot up to my mouth as the Heads of House converged on Lee. There was a great bang and a puff of purple smoke, which soon cleared to revel Lee hunched over and wobbling unsteadily with his left leg off of the ground as he clutched it in his arms in a makeshift hug of sorts. He still had a lingering look of panic on his face, and Twycross gestured to him as he spoke again. "Splinching, or the separation of random body parts, occurs when the mind is insufficiently _determined_. You must concentrate continually upon your _destination_, and move, without haste, but with _deliberation_… thus."

Twycross stepped forwards, turned gracefully on the spot, and vanished, reappearing at the back of the hall.

"Show off," Lee muttered, cautiously beginning to let go of his leg.

"Just remember the three D's," Twycross said, "and try again."

An hour later, nobody had successfully apparated, but at least nobody had splinched themselves again. Lee hadn't even fully tried to Apparate again, looking nervous every time he made a half hearted attempt. Twycross didn't seem discouraged, but he also didn't have any real teaching methods except shouting the three D's occasionally. Eventually he dismissed us, with significantly lower spirits than he'd greeted us with two hours prior, and we filed out of the Hall with his promise to see us next Saturday.

"Right prat that Twycross is," Fred muttered, completely annoyed with the lack of progress, "Learnt about as much as if Binns was giving us one of his bloody lectures."

Katie jumped on us almost as soon as we entered the Common Room, managing to look jealous of us but excited for us at the same time.

"How did it go?!" she asked, grabbing Lee's arm and frowning when he visibly flinched.

"Uh… not so well…" George said, failing to find a better way to describe it. "It's not exactly what you'd expect."

"Lee did pretty well; he was the only one who managed to Apparate," Fred said, surprising us all. "I mean, obviously he hadn't done it in a while so it wasn't perfected, but still better than the rest of us did."

Lee glanced down at his left leg, wincing, before he looked up at Katie, who had made a sound of awe at Fred's statement.

"That's fantastic, Lee!" Katie chirped happily. "I_ knew_ you could do it!"

Lee cheered up a bit after that, but the rest of us were still a bit put out. I mean, come on. Apparating was always this huge, awe inspiring thing, but it was a complete let down so far. There was already one injury, more than a few people put off completely, and Twycross was a right prat.

…And good Merlin, I've been in England so long I've started using words like prat and snog now!

This day just keeps getting worse.


	12. Birthdays and Gardenias

On the morning of April 1st, I rushed into the boys dormitory room at 8:00am in the morning, Katie bumping into the door with such force that it whacked against the wall loudly and immediately slammed shut again. Seven bodies simultaneously shot up in fright and Katie grinned maniacally, blowing obnoxiously loudly on a party blower and lifting a multicolored banner above her head.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRED, GEORGE! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UUUUUP!" I screamed, diving onto George's bed where he quickly caught me around the waist before we both rolled onto the floor. When Katie jumped onto Fred it didn't turn out as well, and I heard a loud THUMP followed by a masculine groan and another blow on the party blower.

"You psycho bitches," I heard Lee mutter to himself as he flopped back down onto his pillows, glancing up at his watch in annoyance. "It's 8 in the damn morning! On a Sunday!"

"It is a special day!" Katie's voice called from the other side of Fred's bed. She popped her head up, and I grinned at her from where I was now laying comfortably half on top of George, his arm curved around me to keep us both inside the single bed. I grinned up at him and blew on the party blower into his face, the noise turning squeaky at the end as I squealed, jerking away from him when he pinched my hip.

"We're trying to celebrate you two being legal adults! Mentally, I'd say you're both twelve, but legally… yeah," I said enthusiastically.

From the other side of the bed, Fred groaned. "Then how about the first thing you do to celebrate is get the fuck off of me, Katie."

Katie glanced down and grinned apologetically, bouncing up and reaching down to help him sit up.

The other few inhabitants of the room had gone back to ignoring us after a few muttered "happy birthday's," but Lee looked a lot more awake now. He pushed his doona back and stood, clad in little more than small, tight briefs.

"Seriously?!" Katie cried, wincing as he turned and winked at her, trying to flex his muscles without looking too obviously like he was doing it. She turned away and rolled her eyes.

I dug my elbow into George's side when I looked up and noticed he had his eyes closed and looked like he was drifting back to sleep. His eyes shot open and he looked down at me groggily.

"Is it my birthday?" He asked through a yawn, and I nodded enthusiastically, pulling myself out of the bed and joining Katie by the door. She was once again holding up the large banner with the words 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' on it in multicolored lettering.

Katie grinned at them and waved the banner. "Come on, boys! Get more excited! You're adults now!" Fred did start to grin a bit at that thought. "So please put some clothes on,_ Lee_, and meet us downstairs for food and gifts!"

With one last blow on the party blower, we left the room, slamming the door loudly behind us.

* * *

><p>It only took Lee about five minutes to join us (now fully clothed), and another five for Fred and George. By the time the twins entered the common room, Angelina had finished hanging up decorations and was scolding Katie for taking down about four of her banners and wrapping Lee up like a mummy.<p>

Katie nudged my arm when she spotted the twins descending the staircase, and we all cried "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" A few other people in the room joined in and the twins grinned widely.

"Angie! I'd wondered why you didn't come barging into our room like the other two misfits, but this completely makes up for it!" Fred cried, happily observing the room.

"Well, seventeen is special," Angie shrugged, wrapping her arms around his waist and giving him a tight hug.

"And we're not misfits," Katie defended, and Lee nodded, the banners wrapped around his head crinkling as he did so.

Rolling my eyes, I turned back to face the twins, who had flopped down on the couch. "So what do you want to do today?"

They glanced at each other, before looking back at me and saying at the same time, "No work. At all. For any of us."

Alicia made a small noise of objection. "But, the potions essay-"

"No work!" Fred said, louder than before, and she shrank down under his gaze. "And…"

"…In the spirit of April Fools Day…" George continued, grinning mischievously.

"…we do believe it's time for some pranks." Fred finished, and I gulped. May Merlin have mercy on us all.

I somehow escaped the twin's birthday completely unscathed, but I couldn't say the same for most other people. It appeared that their birthday had turned into 'we can test our joke products on anybody and nobody can say anything about it' day, and the Slytherin's and first years were their favorite targets. Not to mention that Peeves seemed to have some kind of weird admiration for the twins and had been doing things to entertain them all day. These pranks escalated in danger all day until McGonagall had to step in when he stole all the knives from the kitchens. Still not sure what exactly he planned on doing with them. I'm probably better off not knowing.

Once the danger had passed, I could admit that it was rather sweet in a really weird way. I mean, the poltergeist despised everyone else, but he seemed to admire the twins.

That night we all ended up lounging in front of the fireplace as Fred and George ripped into their presents, giggling excitedly like children at every new thing they unwrapped and immediately tapping the others arm to show it to each other. It was a rather sweet scene, to be honest.

George sucked in a strangled gasp when he opened my gift and immediately looked up at me. I was worried there might have been tears for a moment. It was a book on Quidditch all around the world through the ages that he'd been eyeing off our past three Hogsmeade visits, and I knew he'd never spend his own money buying it. That was George's problem; he was perfectly happy spending the small amount of money he had on pleasing other people, but he was loathed to ever do anything for himself. It's why I went all out on Christmas and his birthday for him; he really did deserve it.

He didn't say anything, but he jumped off of the chair and threw himself on top of me where I sat on the armchair, crushing me down into the cushions and leaving me short of breath as he gave me a big bear hug. Once I'd regained my breath, I couldn't hold back a happy giggle as I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back, and at some point he began chanting thank you's into my shoulder blades.

Once he stopped his display of affection he flopped down beside me in the tiny chair, maneuvering so I was half sitting on him. Lee muttered something about 'your reaction to my gift wasn't that enthusiastic,' and George looked down at him before diving onto the floor and on top of Lee, who let out a strangled yelp as he hit him.

"Thank you, Lee!" He cried, "The chocolate was the best gift I could have asked for! You know me too well by now!"

Fred snorted and began to eat George's chocolate, even though he'd received just as many treats as his brother. Eventually Lee forced George off of him and fixed a glare onto his face that not one person believed was actually real, and George looked sheepishly around at the mess they'd made as he stood back up, settling himself back down in the cramped armchair with me.

I also surveyed the damage to the floor. There were bits of wrapping paper and ribbon scattered all over the place. Hermione would have a fit if she could see what the House Elves would have to clean up.

* * *

><p>Apparition lessons continued much the same way after the first one, with little progress. Twycross still seemed determined to get us to Apparate with as little actual instruction as possible. He wandered around the hall yelling the three D's occasionally whilst the four Heads of House took turns watching our poor attempts and trying not to laugh.<p>

I mean, it's all well and good for them, though, isn't it?

"This is hopeless!" Lee cried, his arms crossed as he glared at the hoop in front of him.

"Just remember, Mr. Jordan, Determination, Destination, Deliberation! Remember the three D's, and try again!" Twycross said, having made his way to us. He continued walking and Lee glared at his back.

"I'll give him the three fucking D's," he muttered, tapping his foot in annoyance, before he set his glare back to the circle.

"So when are you two going for your Apparition license?" Angelina asked the twins. "You're seventeen now, so you can go any time you want."

George shrugged. "Probably after we Apparate for the first time. That might be a good starting point."

"Still doing a better job than Lee!" Fred grinned, twirling in a spectacular circle and still not ending up anywhere closer to the circle. Lee shot him a glare. Since Lee had recovered from the losing his leg incident, Fred had stopped being so kind about it.

"I suppose we could always take it with goldilocks over there," Fred said, nodding at me. "Your birthdays like, what… late June?"

"Early May," George corrected his brother, who raised his eyebrows at his knowledge.

I smiled at George. It's quite sweet that he remembers. "May 4th."

"Alright then, we'll take the test with you then. We should be ready by then."

With that, I watched him look back at the circle and spin around again, only succeeding in making himself dizzy. There's no way we'll be ready.

But April continued and we all signed up for extra lessons in Hogsmeade when we were offered them. Twycross wasn't our instructor at these extra lessons, instead a more hands on, handsome blonde man who lived in the village was teaching us, and though he was a lot more helpful, it was hard to do more than ogle him.

But finally, in the second last week of April, it happened. I did it.

I Apparated.

And as soon as I ended up in that hoop, I dropped to my knees and screamed in shock and excitement.

Snape and Twycross immediately jumped on me, and it took them a moment to realize I hadn't Splinched myself. When Snape realized I was fine, he threw my arm away from him, which he'd grabbed to see which body part I was without, and stalked away in annoyance.

I DON'T CARE, I CAN APPARATE!

Now let's see if I can do it again!

* * *

><p>With the amount of work load the sixth and seventh years had to do, time seemed to be speeding up, and before I knew it, it was already the end of April. It was a Friday night and Angelina, Alicia and I were sitting in front of the fireplace, attempting to get some work done. Fred and George had left after muttering something about sending a letter, and Lee seemed highly suspicious. So of course, he and Katie had followed them. Even I had to admit that the boys had been acting a little bit odd (or, more odd than usual) lately.<p>

I was currently on my knees on the ground with almost every single book I owned stacked around me and digging through my bag, throwing quills and spare parchment everywhere. My fat cat Felix was sitting on the armchair glaring at me, as though what I was doing was interrupting his sleeping schedule, and he'd already hissed at a third year who had tried to make him move so she could sit down.

"It's not here!" I cried, and Angelina barely glanced up at me. "It's just not here! I mean, where could I have possibly left a big fat charms book that's heavier than my cat?!"

Alicia tapped her chin with her quill. "You were outside in your study free today and you said something about the Charms essay when you came into lunch after. Could you have left it out there?"

I thought back on the day, trying to remember if I'd picked it up before I left the grounds, but couldn't for the life of me remember past the amazing steak I'd had for lunch. This is what a healthy appetite gets me, I suppose.

With a loud groan that attracted some looks from the other occupants of the room, I stood up. "Shit, I guess I have to go look. I'll be back soon."

The other two girls nodded as I left the room, muttering to myself in annoyance the entire way down to the Great Hall. I pushed open the double doors with no small amount of effort, and entered the pitch black grounds with a frown.

"Ugh, creepy," I muttered, making my way carefully down the stairs, where I almost tripped over somebody sitting on the bottom step. With a cry of shock, I stumbled back, falling back onto the stairs behind me. Squinting, I leaned forwards to see in the small amount of light reflecting from the large doors I'd left open that it was Cedric sitting there.

He was now looking up at me with raised eyebrows. "Bit jumpy tonight, are we?"

"What are you doing out here?!" I demanded, ignoring his question and placing my hand over my still racing heart.

He didn't answer, only turned to look back out over the grounds. I shuffled myself down three steps to sit next to him, and began looking out over the grounds myself. Now that my eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, I could make out a few more figures in various places throughout the grounds, and wondered why there were so many people out here so late.

Not to mention it's creepy as hell out here.

Cedric still hadn't spoken, and I looked up at him to see him biting his lip, a nervous habit I knew he had. "What's up?" I asked gently. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine…" he answered, sounding distant. "I just uh… I just went down to hear the announcement of the third task."

I stayed quiet, pulling my jumper tighter around me as I waited for him to continue.

"It's a maze," he said suddenly, and this seemed to open the floodgates, as he began to ramble. "They're growing it themselves. And it's… huge. It was only at about my knees but I couldn't even see where it ended, and Bagman said it should grow high above our heads. They're going to put creatures in there, enchantments, and Bagman muttered something at one stage about the maze moving itself or something… and Bagman just… he actually sounded a bit nervous about it, you know? Like he wasn't really sure how we'd go in the maze… And I just… I'm _scared_, Bree…"

He paused from his rambling, taking a deep breath, and when he spoke again, it was a whisper. "I don't know if I can do this."

I reached down between us and took his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Cedric," I said gently, "You are one of the most brilliant people I've ever met in my life. You're intelligent, you're a master of charms… and you're one of the bravest people I've ever met." His hand squeezed mine tighter at this. "I truly think that if anybody could do this, it's you."

He raised his head to look up at me, his wide eyes reflecting the moonlight. It was obvious he was close to tears but trying not to let them fall.

"And I'm going to help you." I said with an air of finality.

"You're… what?" he asked, and I smiled at him.

"I'm going to help you. You're one of the brightest students at Hogwarts, and I've been acing Defense Against the Dark Arts for years. I'm not too shabby at Transfiguration, either. I'm also pretty good at baking but, I don't know, I somehow don't think that will help. But anyway, I think together, we can prepare you for anything that maze has."

Cedric considered me for a moment. "Are you sure? I mean, I know you don't have to-"

"Of course I'm sure." I interrupted, and he smiled. "You're my friend, Cedric. And what honor is there in doing everything alone, anyway? Sometimes, you need someone else… and that's okay."

He didn't say anything else, but he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to his chest in a tight hug. I smiled gently as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer to me, pretending not to notice when he wiped a tear away over my shoulder.

After a moment or so, I pulled away and put my hand on his cheek, returning the dazzling smile he sent me. "You're going to win this thing, Ced."

He nodded. "I am. I'm going to win this thing."

"And when you do… that's when my baking skills will come in handy."

His only response was rolling his eyes.

* * *

><p>May brought warmer weather, and with it, my birthday. I was not excited. Ask anyone who has ever met me and they'll be able to tell you how easily excited I am about the simplest of things, but especially birthdays and other holidays. However, this year, my birthday marked another day.<p>

Fred, George, and I were going to take the Apparition test.

The twins had intended to begin my birthday much the same way that Katie and I had begun theirs by jumping on my bed to wake me up (they needn't have worried, of course Katie woke me up excitedly as soon as Angelina nodded that it was finally an acceptable hour), but the boys ended up flat on their faces in the Common Room when the stairs to the girl's dormitory had turned to a slide when they attempted to climb them. Lee had then decided to try and climb the slide, so I began my day instead by Katie hitting Lee midway down the stairs as we slid into the common room, the both of them ending up tumbling down the slide. Everybody mostly ignored them, as George promptly let out a happy yell and picked me up by my waist, giving me a big bear hug whilst my feet dangled above the ground.

"Happy birthday, Breezy!" He yelled excitedly, placing me back on my feet but keeping one arm around my shoulders, as I looked down to see Lee still lying on the floor, Katie on top of him

"I know the stairs do that when you try to climb them, but every time I assume it won't happen," he groaned, rubbing his tailbone.

"Well, it's because of perverts like you that the Founders built that as a feature at all," Angelina pointed out, as Katie stood and pulled Lee up with her.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Katie cried, her excitement coming back to her, as she grabbed my wrist and pulled me over to the fire place. There was a stack of presents sitting in front of the fire, balloons littering the ceiling, and Katie seemed to have reused the banner she'd bought for the twin's birthday and strung it haphazardly above the fire. I couldn't help the large grin that came to my face when I saw the trouble that they'd gone to for me.

"You guys didn't have to do all this…" I started, but was interrupted when Lee popped up in front of me with a tray full of what looked like triple chocolate cupcakes.

"_A la carte,_ madam," Lee said in the poshest voice he could manage. "Your breakfast is served, made from scratch by yours truly."

George raised his eyebrows and Lee grinned, completely unembarrassed. "I asked the house elves to do it. That counts for something."

"You're right, Lee, that does count for something," I agreed, standing on my toes to place a peck on his cheek.

A body collided with my back then so hard that I almost toppled forward onto Lee. I recognized the woven bracelet I'd gotten him last Christmas around the arm holding onto me, and I turned to see Sam grinning up at me. "Happy birthday, Bree!" he cried excitedly, and this prompted Lee to start a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' in what seemed to be the loudest voice he could manage. Alicia appeared through the portrait hole then, with Callie, James, Persephone, and Ben trailing behind her, all wearing large grins.

As the group of sixth years, fifth years, fourth years, Brits and Americans settled themselves around the fire, everybody managing to fit in comfortably, I remembered exactly what it was I liked so much about holidays. The gifts I ripped into soon after reminded me of another reason.

Birthdays make me feel very spoilt. There were clothes, cheap trinkets, food, a few small, framed sketches Callie had done of various landmarks she knew I aimed to travel to (traditional, popular places like the Eiffel tower and Big Ben), and so many books I wanted to cry in happiness. Most of them came from George, who embarrassedly admitted that he'd taken a trip to the Hogsmeade book store and sat in there for three hours until Callie arrived to tell him it was getting dark and he needed to leave. It took me a moment to comprehend the fact that this mismatched group of people cared about me enough to do things like this for me. I don't think I'll ever stop being grateful for any of them.

Soon enough, after leaving everything in my room for safe keeping, we left the common room and headed to class. The rest of the day continued much the same way it had begun; over excited, with the twins starting so many different choruses of 'Happy Birthday' with so many different groups of people in so many different places that I actually lost count. Lee didn't take his party hat off all day.

Cedric came to the Gryffindor table with Cho at lunch and sat with us, whilst Lee didn't allow for me to eat anything but foods he deemed as 'celebratory foods' like cakes. I was feeling disgustingly full of chocolate by the time the twins and I left for our Apparition classes, with Cedric and Cho walking us out as the whole end of the Gryffindor table yelled their luck to us (somewhere I heard Katie with her party blower). As a gift, Cedric revealed some fruit and sandwiches he smuggled out for me once we reached the Great Hall, and I gratefully took them and headed down to Hogsmeade for the Apparition test.

The test consisted of a theory and a practical part. Twycross' horrible teaching method of yelling out the three D's every few minutes or so actually came in handy; the three main questions were defining and explaining the three D's in detail. I sent a silent apology for bagging his teaching methods as I wrote out the answers.

The twins and I had to sit in the waiting room of an office where we took the test for around half an hour whilst they marked our papers, my foot tapping nervously the entire time. Eventually, the attractive male apparition instructor from the extra classes we'd taken outside of school appeared with a grin, telling us all we'd passed the theory and were fine to move on to the practical. He separated us then, knowing, I think, how we would more than likely distract each other, and I waited impatiently for my turn. The boys came back with wide grins on their faces one at a time, and my spirits rose slightly, since they had both been having trouble in previous weeks in being able to consistently Apparate, and I nervously left to take my own test.

The first time I attempted to Apparate… nothing happened. I managed to play it off as a joke with the instructor, and nervously tried again. This time, I lucked out (after a very long moment of trying). I disappeared and reappeared five meters away in a hoop the instructor had laid on the ground, and I barely managed to stop myself from cheering loudly at my success.

When I re-entered the room where the twins were waiting anxiously, George let out a yell of triumph when I walked in and grinned at them, nodding to tell them that I'd passed. The two of them swooped down on me in a sort of excited hug, where I ended up lifted off the ground and squished in between the two of them.

We took a detour to the sweet shop and Zonko's to congratulate ourselves on our success, and by the time we ended up back at the school it was nearly seven o'clock. Lee somehow managed to start up another rendition of 'happy birthday' where he got down on one knee and sang louder than anybody else who had joined in, and it didn't even occur to me to be embarrassed until Snape swooped past and told him to stop making a scene, docking Gryffindor five points just to be sure he'd made his point.

That night when I finally headed up to bed (far later than I wanted to, but Callie had gotten me Twister for my birthday because a year ago she'd ruined the one I'd had since I was ten. It was surprising how often we played board games. Our social lives aren't exactly riveting, to be honest. Anyway, Lee had never played before and he kept us playing for far too long), my cheeks hurt from laughing all day. I opened the door and immediately spotted a bouquet of pure white gardenia's resting on my bedside table. With a delighted gasp, I rushed over and grinned down at them, bending and inhaling their smell.

Next to them was an envelope, and I picked it up to find that it was heavier than I expected. Upon opening the envelope, I realized that this was because there was a stack of photographs in there, and I soon realized that someone had taken my camera and had the photos from the past few months developed.

Glancing around to see that Angelina, Victoria, and Ruby were already asleep, I pushed myself up to sit against the headboard of my bed. My legs folded beneath me as I went through the stack, smiling to myself with every photo that I saw. Photographs have always been something I enjoy; Toby calls it 'ridiculously sentimental', but I love the thought of a memory captured in time. I'd only been introduced to moving wizard photographs when I turned eight and I'd loved them ever since.

The first few were of my last few days at Walden, so Callie and James featured more than anyone else. There was a photo of Toby, Sam, and I all sitting against a wall in our old house after the furniture had been cleared out, and I couldn't help but laugh lightly at the next photo of Toby with me on his back.

That was when I got to the photos I'd taken since arriving at Hogwarts, and after making it past a few photos of Lee and I making snow angels I made it to the photographs of the Yule Ball. Sucking in a breath, I stared at the photographs. I'd forgotten how beautiful everybody looked on the night. There were numerous photos of what looked like Katie and Lee trying to model with various objects, like statues from in the grounds, but some of Lee's photos were actually pretty good. He had one of Sam and I chatting to each other animatedly, one of Katie and Angelina making faces at the camera, and one of Callie and James mid dance step. I remember Lee saying on the night that he should go into photography, and although he was being sarcastic, I mused that with photos like this he could probably actually do it.

The last photo was one I remembered Lee taking. My hands were on George's cheeks and he had a large grin on his face as I spoke to him, my own smile widening. The flash went off but we didn't move away from each other.

Underneath this photo was a note, and I unfolded it to read the scribble of writing I'd become familiar with over the past few months.

_Happy Birthday, Breezy_

_–George_

A bright smile spread across my face, and I barely managed to wipe it off even a while later when I was lying in bed. I laid the photographs on my bedside table, the one of George and I sitting on the top, and propped the card up against the gardenias.

It didn't occur to me until I was just about to drift off to sleep that I'd never told George that Gardenia's were my favorite flowers.

When I bounded down the stairs the next morning and jumped on him in a hug, he'd laughed and said "I take it you liked the flowers, then?" When I asked how he knew they were my favorite, he only smiled knowingly, pulling me closer to his chest. never answering.

* * *

><p>Around two weeks later, my Sunday was spent in the very back corner of the library, hidden behind shelves and stacks of books, my back against the wall as I tried to catch a break and get some study done. Lee had failed his Apparition test yesterday (he left half an eyebrow behind. It was harsh) and still hadn't ceased whinging about it. Angelina and Callie had passed with flying colors and were trying not to rub it in his face, but I'd taken refuge in the back of the library in an attempt to get some peace and quiet. This was broken after an hour or so when I heard the voices of the Weasley twins. By this time I was getting bored of reading over my notes and decided to pay them a visit where they seemed to be in the row in front of me. Judging by their hushed voices and the fact that neither of them had said 'Blondie' yet or snuck up right next to me to scare me, I assumed they hadn't seen me. I dusted myself off after standing and moved down the row, but stopped suddenly when I caught a section of their conversation.<p>

"-that's blackmail, that is! We could get into a lot of trouble for that-"

"-we've tried being polite, its time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did-"

"I'm telling you, if we put that in writing, it's blackmail!"

"Yeah, and you wont be complaining if we get a nice big payoff, will you?"

Their voices faded then and I realized they were moving away from me. I jumped out into the aisle intending to follow them and demand what they were doing, but ran straight into someone and fell back onto the floor, hitting my tail bone and the back of my head pretty hard.

Ugh. Madame Pomfrey should just give me a frequent customer card these days.

I looked up, trying to focus on what was in front of me through my sudden dizziness, and heard a voice exclaim "Merlin! Why don't you watch where you're going?!"

I recognized Draco by his sunny sweet personality even before my head cleared enough for me to make out his blinding white hair.

Groaning, I sat up, muttering "Good to see you too, Draco. I'm fine, don't worry, you don't need to help me up."

Despite my sarcastic attitude he didn't make a move to help me up. It was only after a momentary stare off that he finally rolled his eyes and leaned down to pull me to my feet by my upper arms, and once I was standing he dropped his hands like I had the plague.

Real charmer, this one.

I hadn't spoken to him since I'd called him out on the interview he gave Rita Skeeter in her article about Hagrid, and there was definitely an air of awkwardness between us. I almost regretted having said something to him; he was just starting to talk to me in a civil manner when I'd said something. Now, it looks like I'm back to square one with him.

"Well… hello," I said, completely unable to handle awkward silences at the best of times. "Fancy seeing you here."

"What do you mean?" he snapped, and I refrained from rolling my eyes with a great deal of effort.

"I see you here a fair bit, Draco. I'm not challenging your integrity, there's no need to get your wand in a knot."

His frown deepened at this, and he demanded "Why are you here so often, anyway?"

"I like books," I replied, trying not to sound as tired as I felt, "It's a pretty standard answer for someone who spends a lot of time around a large amount of books, but whatever. Why are you here often enough to notice how often I'm here?"

He looked away, the toe of his shoe beginning to scuff against the floor. "It's busy in the Slytherin common room. I need time to study."

It sounded like he was holding back on me, but I've spent enough time around Draco by now to realize that pressing him for information would get me absolutely nowhere. So instead I searched around for something else to speak about and saw him clutching his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook to his side.

"Oh! Defense, huh? I could always help you study if you wanted," I offered, and his eyes shot back to me, narrowing in suspicion.

"Why would you want to do that?"

I smiled at him gently and said, "Well, you'd benefit from it, wouldn't you? That's all that really matters."

He didn't seem to know what to say to that, so I smiled again and turned to leave. "Well, Draco, I'd best be off, but if you ever feel like taking me up on my offer, you know where to find me," I said, gesturing around at all the books around us.

He stayed silent until I was a few rows down the aisle, when he called my name suddenly and I turned to look back. He seemed almost embarrassed by his outburst, but continued on anyway. "Happy birthday. For a few weeks ago."

My small smile turned into a full on grin at this. "Thank you, Draco."

I left the library a while later with the twins schemes forgotten for the moment; the tired looking, closed off, blonde haired boy was the only thing on my mind.

* * *

><p>The mood in the castle as we entered June turned excited and tense again. There were rumors floating around the school that Mr. Crouch was officially now a missing person. Nobody confirmed this rumor until George told me one night that Percy had been called in for questioning about the letters he'd been receiving from Crouch, now thought to be forged.<p>

Since Harry and I had overheard Karkaroff and Snape arguing in his office, I'd noticed that Karkaroff spent a lot more time with Zira, looking seedier than ever. Alicia told me to stop worrying, but that was hard to do when I'd seen Harry rubbing his scar subconsciously and wincing more than once over the past few weeks.

However, soon enough my attention, along with everybody else's, turned to the Third Task, which would take place one week before the end of term. Cedric and I were practicing hexes and curses at every available moment, and he was starting to feel as inwardly confident as he exuded externally.

It didn't take long for us to master the Impediment Jinx, a spell to slow down and obstruct attackers, and the Reductor Curse, a personal favorite of mine, which enables you to destroy solid objects. I'd also taught him the Four Point Spell, which caused his wand to point due North when he cast it to ensure he was always going the right way in the maze. Hermione had recently taught it to me as a thank you after I'd helped Harry master the Reductor curse. I was helping Harry whenever Sam informed me that he was struggling with something more than usual, and of course I would never turn either of the Hogwarts champions away, but between helping each of them I was running out of spare time to study for myself. I waved him off when Cedric mentioned this, managing to look on the bright side- I'd be getting top marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts, at least, even if I failed everything else.

Cedric was an ace at charms, so his strongest was still the Shield Charm. This made me hopeful, because I heard Toby say once that the best offense is a good defense, and he definitely had that covered.

Of course, the saying could also be that the best defense is a good offense… but we had that covered, too, I guess.

Cedric and I were flopped down on the floor of the Charms classroom (Flitwick had given us permission to use the room once he'd finally calmed down after finding us practicing in a spare classroom and had immediately jumped to the conclusion that we'd been fighting each other), staring at the ceiling and taking a very well deserved break. It was Sunday afternoon, a few weeks away from the next task, and I was feeling really, really good about our efforts.

"You're doing so fantastically!" I told him excitedly, turning my head to look up at him, and he grinned down at me, not responding.

We lapsed into silence for a few moments, which Cedric eventually broke. "I can't wait until this is all over."

"When you're Triwizard Champion, you mean?"

He snorted, before rolling onto his side to look down at me. "Maybe. Maybe not. I'm glad I did this, even if I don't win. James said something after the second task, about how winning has never mattered to him, and I think that's a great way to be. Obviously, I'd like to win, but even if I don't, I've proven to myself that I _could_. I think I'm ready to end this Tournament with a bang."

"End your years of schooling with a bang, you mean. When this is over, that's it. You're done."

A large grin spread across his face, and I continued talking. "What's your plan for once you finish?"

"I'm going to take Cho to Paris," he said without pause. "She's always wanted to go."

He fell silent for a moment before he continued. "I love her, you know. I want to work at the Ministry, with my Dad. I have since I was a kid. Always wanted to make him proud."

Smiling gently, I said "You've definitely made him proud this year. I mean, Merlin… _I_ feel like a proud parent watching you master all these spells."

With a laugh, he shook his head. "He is… very proud. He can't wait until the third task; it's all he talks about in his letters."

Lapsing into silence again, I looked back up at the ceiling. The windows went from floor to ceiling and curved slightly as it met the roof, and I stared outside in silent thought. It was a beautiful day outside; my friends had decided to go down to the Lake to make the most of the warm weather. Katie had pouted like a child when I said I couldn't go, but there will be other lake trips.

As though sensing what was on my mind, Cedric said "I really want to thank you, Bree, for doing this for me. I know you have exams and an infinite list of things you could better spend your time doing, but I really appreciate this."

I sat up and turned to look down at him. "I'm here because I want to be," I said simply. "There's nothing I'd rather be doing. Now get up, I want you to master the Jelly Legs Jinx by the end of the afternoon!"

Cedric let out a loud groan, his grin letting me know he was only joking. "That Jinx is the worst thing we've done yet! It's hardly even worth learning about!"

"That's the spirit, Cedric!" I called enthusiastically, bending down to grab his hands and pull him up to his feet. "Keep up that chipper attitude and you might get a gold star at the end of the day!"

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT: I've gone back over the previous chapters and taken out Jason's character. It's nothing big, but it turns out I botched the plan I had for him and threw him into the story too early. Pretend he never existed- you'll meet him again soon.<strong>

****Sorry about the wait, turns out my last year of school is kicking my ass much more than I thought it would! I thought Gardenia's fit Bree pretty well and look! They've got their Apparating license! This chapter is basically a whole lot of nothing, but I wanted to get a bit of comfort and happiness in before the next chapter, which is (you guessed it) the third task. ****


	13. The Third Task

**Ladies and Gentlemen, the chapter you've been waiting for: The Third Task (or at least... I've been anticipating it more than the rest). First and foremost this story is, of course, a comedy, but Harry Potter deals with death and I think it would be doing the plot an injustice if I tried to smooth over it. I've never written grief and death before so give me some feedback! **

**Note: I listened to Death of Cedric by Patrick Doyle from the Goblet of Fire soundtrack when I wrote the last bit of the chapter. Helps set the scene. **

* * *

><p>After months of waiting, two weeks of exams in the mornings and training with Cedric in the afternoons, and innumerous hours listening to Lee talk about the ridiculous theories he had for the third task, it had finally arrived. It was finally the morning of the third task.<p>

Katie and I entered the Great Hall in high spirits, and breakfast was a very noisy affair for everyone in the room. Lee started more than one loud chant of Harry's name throughout breakfast, and though he looked very nervous from where he sat across from me, Harry also looked kind of excited.

The post owls appeared, bringing my morning copy of The Daily Prophet as usual. I unfolded the paper at around the same time Hermione did, spitting her mouthful of pumpkin juice all over the paper. As Harry looked up at her shocked, I made eye contact with the girl and shoved my paper underneath the table out of Harry's line of vision.

"What?" he asked suspiciously, and I shook my head quickly as Hermione wiped her mouth.

"Nothing!" I squeaked (I'm a terrible liar, ugh), shoving the paper further under the table. Ron grabbed Hermione's juice soaked copy as she tried to hide it, his eyes widening slightly before he, too, hid the paper under the table.

"Nothing important, bit of coverage of, uh… magic versus muggle debate…" I said, trying to sound as carefree as possible, and Harry simply raised his eyebrows.

"It's about me, isn't it?" he asked flatly, and Sam shook his head so quickly with eyes so wide it gave Harry the real answer.

Harry snatched the paper from Ron and I saw his eyes widen slightly in shock when he was faced with his own picture staring back at him. Now that he'd seen it, I lifted my own copy of the paper up, and Katie and I read through the article.

_Harry Potter: Disturbed and Dangerous_

(By Rita Skeeter, of course.)

_The boy who defeated He Who Must Not Be Named is unstable and possibly dangerous. Alarming evidence has recently come to light about Harry Potter's strange behavior, which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in a demanding competition like the Triwizard Tournament, or even to attend Hogwarts School. _

_Potter, the Daily Prophet can exclusively reveal, regularly collapses in school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway through a Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting too badly to continue studying._

_It is possible, say top experts at St Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, that Potter's brain as affected by the attack inflicted upon him by You-Know-Who, and that his insistence that the scar is still hurting is an expression of his deep-seated confusion. _

'_He might even be pretending,' said one specialist, 'this could be a plea for attention.'_

_The Daily Prophet, however, has unearthed worrying facts about Harry Potter that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, has carefully concealed from the wizarding public._

'_Potter can speak Parseltongue' reveals Draco Malfoy, a Hogwarts fourth year. 'There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and most people thought Potter was behind them after they saw him lose his temper at a Duelling Club and set a snake on another boy. It was all hushed up, though. But he's made friends with werewolves and giants too. We think he'd do anything for a bit of power.'_

_Parseltongue, the ability to converse with snakes, has long been considered a Dark Art. Indeed, the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none other than You-Know-Who himself. A member of the Dark Force Defense League, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that he would regard any wizard who could speak Parseltongue 'as worthy of investigation. Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who could converse with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst kind of Dark Magic, and are historically associated with evil doers.' Similarly, 'anyone who seeks out the company of such vicious creatures as werewolves and giants would appear to have a fondness for violence.'_

_Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether a boy such as this should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear that Potter might resort to the Dark Arts in his desperation to win the Tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening.'_

When I glanced up at the Slytherin table, Draco at least had the decency to avoid eye contact with me.

"Ridiculous," I muttered. "Is anything in there actually true?"

Harry looked slightly embarrassed. "Well… yeah, actually."

"It's not as bad as it sounds, though," Ron added.

"I'm more concerned about the fact that anybody would believe that a professional at St Mungo's diagnosis would be 'probably faking it'," Katie said dismissively.

"It could've been any day but today," Sam muttered, more so to himself than anyone else. "We really don't need this today."

"Suppose that was the point, though, wasn't it?" Katie mused.

James leant across the table, chewing on a piece of toast. "Look on the bright side, Harry," he said, pointing at the large photograph of him on the page. "At least she got your good side."

I rolled my eyes obviously at him, and he shrugged. "What? Any press is good press."

"How did she know your scar hurt in Divination?" Sam asked Harry, and my head shot away from James. I can't believe I haven't noticed Harry's scar paining him before now. "I mean, she couldn't have been there or heard us talking…"

"The window was open," Harry shrugged. "I opened it to breathe."

"You were at the top of the North Tower," I pointed out skeptically. "I highly doubt she was eavesdropping from the ground below."

"And your voice wouldn't have carried that far," Hermione pointed out.

"You're supposed to be the one researching magical methods of bugging!" Harry burst out. "You tell me how she did it!"

"I've been trying! But I… but…" Hermione's voice trailed off and an odd, dreamy expression came over her face. Without a word, she stood and walked away, almost in a daze. We all watched her go, mildly concerned.

I glanced back at her friends and asked "Is nobody gonna mention how weird that was?"

The fourth years shrugged. Katie muttered to herself, "And they call Harry the crazy one…"

It was then that a hand clapped on my shoulder, and I jumped slightly, turning to see George grinning down at me. Fred appeared beside him and raised his eyebrows. "Jumpy little thing, aren't you?"

I rolled my eyes as George tugged on the shoulder of my jumper. "Get up, Blondie. Come on!"

They both seemed excited about something, so I stood and followed the twins out of the Hall without much protest, turning back to shrug at a bewildered Katie as she watched us leave.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" I asked, as the boys led me across the Great Hall and to a door, where they stopped and turned to us.

"There's somebody I'd- _we'd_-" George corrected himself when Fred elbowed him, "-like you to meet." He extended his hand for me and I took it cautiously, wondering who the hell these boys were leading me to.

"Bree," Fred began as the door opened and the boys led me inside.

George grinned down at me when he saw my bewildered expression, before finishing his brother's sentence. "This is our Mum."

Immediately, my panic left me. I'd heard of this woman before, from all five of her children that I'd met. A large grin spread on my face as I realized that these boys actually had enough faith in the fact that I wouldn't embarrass them that they wanted me to meet their family (it was faith or misplaced hope. I guess we'll see).

A plump looking woman with her son's bright red hair stepped forwards, a large grin on her face. I could see the resemblance she had to Ginny (and not just the red hair). It looked like she had put on her best dress for the occasion of coming to the school, and I couldn't help but wonder what she was doing here.

I rushed forwards, my hand outstretched to shake hers, and burst out "It's so nice to meet you, Mrs Weasley!"

She swatted my hand away quickly, but I didn't have time to be confused when she gathered me to her in a tight hug. I didn't complain. I'm a hugger.

"Oh, nonsense, please call me Molly, dear!" she said, drawing back to hold me at arms length, looking me over. "My boys talk about you all the time! You've made quite the impression!"

I tried to hide a blush at that, but she spotted it and laughed well naturedly. Two men stepped forwards from behind her; one, I immediately assumed was the boys Father. My suspicions were proven correct when he stepped forwards and extended his hand for me to shake, a familiar grin that matched his twin boys on his face.

"I'm Arthur," he told me. "It's nice to meet you, Bree."

I nodded, grinning widely, and returned the sentiment. The other boy looked to be in his twenties, with flaming red hair that immediately told me he was a part of the Weasley clan. His hair was long and pulled back into a ponytail, and he had a dragon fang earring hanging from one ear. This guy looked like a total badass. Usually I would be swooning right about now.

I spotted Fleur over his shoulder giving the man an appraising look. She had the right idea.

"I'm Bill," he told me, shaking my hand like his Father instead of pulling me in for a bear hug like his Mother. "It's nice to meet you, Bree."

Before I could respond, a voice exclaimed from behind me in a delighted tone "Mrs Weasley! Mr Weasley! Bill!"

I turned to see Harry rushing towards us, a bright grin breaking out across his face. Ron and Ginny trailed in behind him.

"Surprise!" Mrs Weasley cried excitedly. "We thought we'd come and watch you in the Third Task!"

She bent and kissed Harry on the cheek and his grin widened. He seemed a bit speechless. "This is so kind of you… I mean, I thought for a moment… the Dursleys…"

Mrs Weasley's smile got a bit tighter and I could see it took a lot out of her not to make a comment about these Dursley people. I must remember to ask Sam who they are sometime, this isn't the first time I've been out of the loop about this. And I hate being out of the loop about anything.

"It's great being back here," Bill mused, glancing around the room. "Haven't seen this place for five years. Is that picture of the mad knight still around? Sir Cadogan?"

Hearing the name, I scoffed a laugh. "Is that the crazy one that tries to involve the students in his adventures? Yeah, he's here. He got me lost on my first day."

Bill grinned, "Ah, he was fun. And what about the Fat Lady?"

"Oh, she was here in my time," Mrs Weasley said, "She gave me such a telling off one night when I got back to the dormitory at four in the morning-"

"What were you doing out of your dormitory at four in the morning?" George demanded, staring at his mother in amazement.

"Your father and I had been for a night time stroll," she said, nudging Arthur. They both had large grins on their faces at the memory. "He got caught by Apollyon Pringle- he was the caretaker in those days- your Father's still got the marks, don't you dear?"

"Oh, yes, don't fancy they'll ever fade. In fact-" Arthur began, smiling fondly down at his wife, when Bill interrupted.

"Fancy giving us a tour, Harry?" he asked loudly after seeing his siblings horrified faces. I thought it was kind of sweet.

Harry agreed, and Fred told his Mother that the rest of us couldn't stick around. We walked with them to the door and were about to exit when Arthur saw someone he knew. A grin spread across his face and he called "Amos!"

Turning, I saw Arthur hurry over to where Cedric and his parents were standing. Amos greeted Arthur warmly; I recalled Fred telling me that his and Cedric's father's both worked at the Ministry, which explained their friendliness. They had just begun excitedly chattering away about the other contestants in the Tournament like schoolgirls when Cedric interrupted.

"Dad, this is Bree. I told you about her; she's been helping me to prepare for the third task."

Amos glanced over at me before excitedly marching forward to shake my hand, as the other Weasley's left the room (Arthur with a "see you at the arena!" to Amos). Amos Diggory, like his son, was charming. He seemed genuinely pleased to meet me, asking me numerous questions about Cedric and my practice lessons for the third task. He was jovial, but in every word he said and the look in his eyes, it was obvious that he was completely proud of his son. The way he looked at Cedric was full of adoration, like raising this boy was the best thing he'd ever done in his life. Which, I suppose, is what being a parent is really about. Cedric's mother, Julie, was much the same, but she was much more softly spoken than her husband. I liked these people almost as much as I liked Cedric the first time I met him, and before I knew it, I was nearly twenty minutes late to class. Amos seemed sad to see me go, but perked up and simply said "I'll see you after Cedric's won the Tournament, and we can talk more!"

I laughed, and Cedric tried to hide a blush. Amos and Julie turned away from us, and I was just turning to leave when Cedric pulled me back to him in a hug. "Thank you," he said sincerely into my ear, and I pulled back and returned his grateful smile. I offered one last pat on the shoulder before I turned to leave, spotting James and Callie with James' mother Denise in the corner of the room. Ordinarily I would've jumped at a chance to chat to Denise, but she and James aren't just alike in looks; their personalities were startlingly similar, and I know if I started a conversation with her, I'd never make it to Divination, so I ducked out of the room without disturbing them and promised myself I'd find her later on.

As it turned out, George had waited for me outside the door. His head shot up and a smile broke out over his face when he saw me.

"What are you doing? You'll be late for Divination!" I scolded him.

"So will you," he pointed out, "and at least I'll get in less trouble arriving with her star pupil."

I went to hit his shoulder but he dodged me (which isn't exactly difficult to do considering how uncoordinated I am).

"Your parents so lovely," I said as we made our way up the stairs, and he winced slightly.

"Merlin, they're still like kids. Fancy telling us a story about sneaking about until four in the morning…" he muttered, as we had to pause and wait for the staircases around us to come to a stop.

"It's kind of sweet," I shrugged. "I mean, it's clear they've been in love since their school days, and the way they look at each other and speak… they clearly still adore each other. They're adorable together. I want that someday."

He turned to smile down at me. "They both liked you," was all he said.

"Oh thank God! I always embarrass myself in front of parents!" I laughed. "Why did you boys want me to meet your Mother, anyway?"

He shrugged, sending a grin at me. "I thought she'd like you. Now hurry up, Breezy, we might miss some important information about Saturn and Mercury having planet sex and making a shitty school like Walden win the Tournament after all!"

This time, he didn't dodge my hit in time; his laughter echoed around the cavernous room as he chased me up the staircases.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day seemed to drag by, the time passing about five times as slowly as usual, as my excitement for the night increased. Finally, after hours of anxiously tapping my foot and listening to Lee's last minute predictions for the events of the night (which actually seemed to increase Fred and George's betting tab sales the louder he spoke), it was time to head down to the Quidditch Pitch where the maze was located.<p>

Katie had gotten out her party blower for the occasion, and Lee was waving a large Gryffindor banner all the way down to the Pitch. Fred and George made the most of their betting tabs, and it felt strange that this would be the last time I'd see them with it. It seemed to be a semi-permanent fixture on the boys these days.

The sky was a darker blue now, and the first of the stars were beginning to appear. I was dragged out of admiring the sky when Lee brought his banner down quickly to avoid catching it on the entrance to the stands and hit me on the back of the head. I pitched forwards onto Katie and ended up sprawled on the ground. Lee stared down at me with a shocked expression on his face.

"Clumsy, aren't you, Bree?" Lee asked, completely unaware, and I was saved having to respond when Angelina grabbed the banner out of his hands roughly, pushing him forwards into the stands when he started to complain.

The rumble of voices was getting louder from inside the stadium, and I pulled myself to my feet quickly, rushing in to try and find a good place to watch from. My name was called from somewhere near the top of the stands, and I turned to see Callie and Alicia standing and waving ridiculously at me. I joined them, with Lee, Angie, and Katie trailing behind me, and looked down into the arena. There was a small grassy area with a platform in the middle for someone to stand and speak on. The maze Cedric had told me about was now about twenty foot high and seemed to extend on for miles. There was a mist hanging above it, and it looked as frightening as Cedric had said.

It was only another ten minutes or so of excited chattering before the band started playing, and Fred and George made their way up the stairs to join us. I started cheering loudly as I applauded, and most of the crowd soon joined in. I was so excited for Cedric and Harry to finally finish this Tournament; I knew after so long teaching Cedric those spells, this would more than likely be a walk in the park for him.

As though my thoughts had summoned them, the Champions made their way into the arena from a doorway underneath the stands. Amos Diggory was the first to enter, running ahead of everyone else excitedly and clapping his hands, motioning to his son as Cedric followed him into the yard. I could see Amos chanting 'Diggory' and soon, most of the Hufflepuffs joined in. I started chanting too, applauding louder, as Cedric tried to hide how much he was grinning. The Beauxbatons students were doing a choreographed cheer (flawless as ever, those girls) which got louder as Fleur entered, but was soon drowned out by the masculine yelling from the Durmstrang students when Viktor entered, throwing his arms above his head and staring into the crowd.

"So dark and brooding," Victoria said approvingly from the stand behind me, but I hardly paid attention to her.

James and his Mother entered the stadium together, beaming at the audiences. The similarities between Mother and son were not just apparent in looks, but in personality, as they both laughed elatedly at the crowd. James began to wave and the crowd got louder; Callie and I were cheering as loud as we possibly could. Callie was bouncing up and down, and James sought her out in the crowd, winking.

Harry entered last, and his was the most reserved entrance. He looked nervous, but still managed to smile at the crowd as best he could. I yelled his name and Angelina waved the banner around like a maniac. Lee eyed it off jealously from beside her.

Sam, Ron, and Hermione were yelling encouragements at Harry from where they stood on the stands one step down from me, but it was almost impossible to hear them over how loud the crowds had gotten. Harry seemed to understand what they were getting at though, and he smiled at them.

Dumbledore stepped onto the platform in the middle of the small arena and waved his arms in indication to stop the noise. Nobody seemed to be paying attention, however, until he held his wand to his throat and his voice echoed magically through the stands. "Silence!"

His loud voice left a ringing in my ears, and Lee let out a small squeak of surprise. The band instruments suddenly stopped and the applause slowly faded away. I was still practically bouncing in my excitement, finding it impossible to keep still.

"Earlier today, Professor Moody placed the Triwizard Cup deep within the maze. Only he knows its exact position. Now as, Mr Diggory-" Dumbledore had to break off at the excited cheering that ensued. Amos lifted his sons arm above his head in a champion like gesture, and Cedric tore it down soon enough, looking embarrassed as he tried to keep himself from returning his Father's wide grin (he failed), "-and Mr Potter-" I stayed standing, but now half the people around me jumped up to join in the cheering. Harry looked around, amazed at the large amount of people cheering his name. "-are tied for first place, they will be the first to enter the maze, followed by Mr Wilson-" Callie's screech would have probably damaged my ears if mine wasn't just as loud "-and Mr Krum and Miss Delacour."

Moody limped his way out of the numerous entrances to the maze then, as Dumbledore continued. "The first one to touch the Cup will be the winner!"

I couldn't help the excited cheering that I started again, and Dumbledore looked like he was getting annoyed now. It was probably this that kept everybody silent for the remainder of his speech.

"I've instructed the staff to patrol the perimeter, and if at any time a contestant wishes to withdraw from the task, he or she need only send up red sparks with their wand." He turned away then, to have a conversation with the contestants, and Katie immediately turned to me.

"This is so exciting!" She gasped. "What do you think he's saying to them?"

"Probably his usual overdramatic life or death speech," Lee threw in carelessly, but judging by the contestants increasingly nervous faces, it might not have been such a wrong prediction.

Dumbledore spun back around as the contestants each made their way over to their own entrance to the maze. Mad Eye Moody met Harry at his, staring down at him with a look on his face that I couldn't quite put my finger on. The applause had started again and I watched as Cedric hugged his Father tightly, muttering an "I love you" which his Father returned quickly. He patted his son once more on the shoulder, giving him one more proud look, before he left him at the entrance. Cedric watched him go, before his eyes began scanning the crowd. They landed on Cho and he mouthed 'I love you' at her.

"On the count of three-" Dumbledore began, as Cedric and Harry glanced at each other and nodded- almost like a truce.

Cedric glanced one last time at the crowd, and his eyes landed on me for a moment. I cheered his name loudly and he sent me one last charming grin before the cannon fired and he disappeared into the maze.

"He could use that smile as a weapon to stun people if he ever found himself without a wand, you know," Callie said matter-of-factly from next to me, and I couldn't help but agree, as the maze shifted to close the entrances where Harry and Cedric had disappeared to.

Fleur, Viktor, and James disappeared after them, James managing to send one last wink up at Callie and I before the maze sealed him in. With all of the contestants gone and the maze completely closed up before us, I realized… this was going to be a long, boring wait.

"You know," Lee mused from next to me. "They don't exactly make these tasks very observer friendly. If there's a list of possible improvements somewhere they should definitely put that in there."

"So… now we wait?" Fred suggested.

George sighed. "We don't even have ripples from the water to give any indication of action this time. This sucks."

The twins left then, attempting to make the most of the excited crowd before the mood sunk too low to make a bit more money. I saw Ginny roll her eyes when they passed her. Arthur and Amos were chattering away excitedly in the front row, and Molly was smiling at her husband in endearment.

The general mood didn't dampen despite the lack of anything interesting to watch; if anything, the suspense made us all even more excited. Whoever emerged from the maze with the Cup had the best chance of winning. I was tapping my foot or bouncing on the balls of my feet consistently, unable to keep still.

"Okay, biased opinions aside, who do we_ really_ think is going to win this thing?" Callie asked, and Lee answered immediately.

"Krum," he said, and Katie rolled her eyes.

"'No biased opinion' means no weird man crush on Krum to affect your opinion," Katie pointed out, and Lee frowned.

I tapped my finger on my chin, considering my answer, before Sam, Hermione, and Ron spun around from in front of us.

"Harry has a reasonable chance what with Bree and Hermione helping him out," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, but so does Cedric," Lee answered. "Cedric is the boy wonder of seventh year and everything he_ isn't_ perfect at, Bree _is_. He's basically unstoppable with her helping him."

Callie made a noise of objection. "Let's not count James out of the race just yet. He may be a pretty boy, but he's smarter than people think he is."

I couldn't help but smile. James may have been a pretty boy, but he would always be Callie's pretty boy… even if they refused to acknowledge anything but friendship between them.

So we waited.

And we waited.

And around half an hour later, we were still waiting.

"How bloody difficult is it to solve a damn maze," Katie muttered in annoyance. I sighed and nodded my agreement from where I was leaning against Callie's shoulder.

At that moment, red sparks flew up into the air from somewhere around the left side of the maze. "SOMETHING'S HAPPENING!" Lee yelled, and people around us looked up in excitement. All that happened after the sparks disappeared was that the hedge seemed to shake slightly. It went still again after a moment, and Lee cursed.

"That means that somebody's in trouble, right?!" Angelina demanded nervously. "What do you think is happening?"

"Well, Angie, I find it fairly obvious that-" Lee began, before Katie elbowed him in the gut to stop his lie before he started.

We only had to wait another moment or two before the front of the maze opened up, and Professor Sprout emerged with a filthy Fleur Delacour leaning heavily on her shoulder. The Beauxbatons let out gasps of surprise, but Lee merely shrugged.

"Let's be honest here, people; she was definitely the weakest link," he said, and I silently agreed with him.

Looking closer, I realized that Fleur was shaking. It looked like Callie had noticed too. "I guess it wasn't so easy in there," she said quietly to me, and I nodded.

"One less competitor for Harry!" Ron cheered. "Tell you what; we should start planning what to use that winning money for now!"

"You mean that winning money which is _technically_ half mine and Hermione's, considering the emotional trauma we went through to help him?" I butted in before Sam could respond, leaning over the railing to better speak to them.

Sam grinned. "Cedric's would be half yours, too, I suppose."

I shrugged. "I'll let him keep most of it. He'll need it to take Cho to Paris these holidays."

Callie and Katie let out a simultaneous "aw!"

"That bitch better know how lucky she is," Katie pouted. "He is one_ fine_ male specimen."

"So is Krum," Lee muttered, and we all turned to look at him in disbelief. He stared back at us, his mouth open.

"That did not come out the way I expected!" he said, seemingly shocked by himself.

"Well, at least if Viktor wins he should have enough money to come back and visit you once he goes back to Bulgaria. You know, after you propose to him and everything," Katie said to Lee, before turning away from his flushed face and coming back to our conversation. As I was turning back to the fourth years, I spotted the twins further along the stands. George waved at me when he saw me and excitedly shook his betting tab.

"I think if James wins he should take us all on a holiday to Paris," Callie said matter-of-factly, drawing my attention back to the conversation. "I mean, we provided moral support throughout the Tournament."

"You told him his dress robes were too tight at the Yule Ball and punched him when he rescued you from the Black Lake in the second task," I reminded her, and she rolled her eyes.

"That punch was accidental and we all know that his clothes are always too tight," she said simply.

The maze gave another shake and our heads shot up simultaneously, the excitement rushing back. But nothing else happened, and I tried not to sigh.

So we waited.

And we waited.

It had been around half an hour and I had finally stopped needing to keep myself moving to let my excitement out when it happened.

All of a sudden, from thin air, two figures appeared and fell roughly onto the dirt, entwined with each other. I managed to make out scruffy black hair and a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff shirt, along with the Triwizard Cup rolling away from them, before I jumped from my seat with a scream that alerted the mostly unaware stadium to what had happened. I was jumping up and down in excitement, and Lee and Katie soon joined in. Amos and Arthur jumped up, applauding furiously; even from back here I could see the proud grin on Amos' face.

The band started playing again and I turned away from the arena as Katie began chattering excitedly in my ear. I couldn't believe it; Harry and Cedric must have tied to end up here together.

"I know those hours training would pay off!" I yelled, and spotted Fred and George down the other end of the row, cheering loudly.

The noise around us was unbelievably loud; I couldn't make out any one sound. Katie pulled me to her in an excited hug as she squealed, before I turned back to look at the boys in the arena, still applauding furiously.

Amos leapt forwards and hugged Arthur tightly. Harry and Cedric still hadn't stood from where Harry was leaning over Cedric; Fleur Delacour shot forwards from where she sat with her friends, and a horrified shriek escaped her suddenly.

That was when I noticed something was wrong.

I could no longer feel Katie's hands shaking my arm in her excitement; I pushed forwards to lean as far over the railing as possible to see inside the arena. I wasn't the only one to notice that one of the boys must have been hurt; Dumbledore and Filch came running forwards, and all around me people were stopping their applause in favor of staring in confusion at the scene unfolding around us.

Harry was crying, I could see that now. He was sobbing, his entire body heaving with the effort to gasp in enough air. Cedric was still; he must have been hurt in the maze… he might have hurt his leg so he couldn't stand, or knocked his head… Madam Pomfrey could fix him in a second, though, I knew it.

Dumbledore had reached them, and grabbed Harry's shoulders. He was saying something as he tried to pull Harry away from Cedric, but Harry let out a pained yell and leapt back onto Cedric.

The applause was beginning to fade now as I clutched Callie's arm. "Why… why isn't he moving?" I asked, but my only response was the band's music cutting off and Harry's pained yells.

Cornelius Fudge dived forwards as Harry managed to form words through his distress. Soon the silence was deafening, and I could finally make out what was being said.

"He's back! He's back!" Harry was sobbing so loudly, repeating this phrase, but what he said next froze me where I stood. "Voldemort's back! Cedric… he asked me to bring his body back… I couldn't leave him, not there!"

Dumbledore gripped his shoulder gently, trying to comfort him, muttering something that I couldn't hear. Whatever it was, Harry just kept sobbing.

I didn't understand… Did he say Voldemort? The Dark Lord? He had to be hallucinating... he had to have hit his head... none of this mattered, they had to get Cedric to the Hospital Wing; it was obvious he was hurt…

Cornelius Fudge rushed back towards the teachers, saying as quietly as possible "Keep everybody in their seats…"

He murmured what he said next so lowly I couldn't make it out, but the people in the front rows heard him perfectly. Whatever it was, it was causing discussion along the rows. Were they talking about how Cedric got hurt? Did Harry hit his head? What happened in that maze?!

_"He said he's dead,"_ I heard someone say, and my legs gave out on me. I fell against Lee, who let out a shocked gasp as he caught me against him.

Harry was still sobbing, and I heard someone else crying. It took me a moment to realize that the weak whimpers I could hear were coming from me, and I couldn't manage to lift myself off of Lee, who only wrapped his arms tighter around me.

I saw Amos Diggory pushing his way through the crowds, but nothing was making sense. Cedric couldn't be dead, they'd taken precautions this year… they'd taken precautions to make sure everybody was safe…

"That's my son!" Amos wailed from the front, his voice completely breaking as he fell to the ground and began to scream. He was crying so loudly, yelling "No!" over and over.

I felt the tears coming harder now and I didn't even know why. Cedric wasn't dead; he _couldn't_ be! We'd trained for this, he was completely prepared. He was going to take Cho to Paris. He couldn't die, not when he had so much to live for.

I looked up in time to see George pushing his way along the row as quickly as he could, a panicked look on his face, and before I knew it he was in front of me. He didn't say anything, just pulled me from Lee into his own arms, clutching me to him just as hard as I was holding onto him, needing the comfort I knew he would give me so desperately. Suddenly, I couldn't stop the sobs that wracked my body as I leant more against George, unable to hold myself up. There were so many thoughts swarming around my head, I couldn't make out what was happening. I couldn't breathe.

I vaguely made out that George was whispering comforting words into my hair, but I couldn't make them out; all I could hear ringing in my ears was Harry crying, and Amos screaming.


	14. Shellshock

**'Nobody ever told me that grief felt so like fear' –C. S. Lewis**

* * *

><p>When I woke up the next morning, I was completely disoriented. My entire body was squished tightly against something, and upon opening my eyes I realized I had slept on the couch in the common room. The reason there was so little room was because George had slept there with me. I had my head resting on his chest and my body squished between his and the back of the couch, with his arm around my waist, practically curled around me in his unconscious state. I felt totally exhausted; I could barely lift my head to gauge my surroundings.<p>

Katie was mostly laying on top of Lee as they were curled up on one of the armchairs, with Angelina and Alicia occupying the other. Fred was curled up on the ground with what looked like all the pillows from the common room pillowing him and a heavy blanket draped over him. Everybody was fast asleep, and judging by the light outside the window, it was very early in the morning. In my groggy state, I couldn't remember how we'd all ended up like this, or anything about last night.

It only took me a few more seconds before the thing I least wanted to think about came swimming to the forefront of my consciousness.

Cedric was dead. Cedric was… murdered.

I would never talk to him again; I would never see him smile, hear him laugh; I would never be able to seek out his advice, or his help. I couldn't even remember the last thing I said to him.

I couldn't think about it; already my heart was pounding harder in my chest and my throat felt constricted. I pushed my head down and curled as close to George as I possible could, seeking the comfort George had always given me. I dug my hand into his shirt, trying to get as close to the warmth of his body as possible, because I suddenly felt so, so cold.

George's hand drifted up my back from where it had been resting on my waist to curl into the hair at the base of my neck, gently stroking my hair comfortingly as he slowly woke up. He opened his eyes and looked down groggily at me, immediately coming awake when he saw me staring back up at him. He didn't say anything, but turned to wrap his other arm around my waist and pull me closer to him, whilst his other hand continued stroking my hair.

"Bree," I heard him breathe out, and I just clutched tighter to him. I wasn't crying anymore. I was still exhausted, and I could feel that my face was hideously puffy from all the crying I'd done. The more I tried to remember last night, the more my head hurt. Everything after Harry and Cedric appeared back in the arena was a blur. I think I eventually stopped sobbing but I couldn't seem to keep the tears from running down my face; I was numb. I remembered George carrying me back up to the school; nobody wanted to be alone, so we all ended up in front of the fireplace, not speaking, but providing each other with as much comfort as possible.

One by one, everybody fell asleep, unable to keep their eyes open any longer; it was well past midnight by that stage. I remember that George kept himself awake until he was sure I was asleep. His shirt had been soaking wet by the time I had dropped into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

My exhaustion finally overcame my body, and I slipped back into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>I drifted back into consciousness slowly this time, to sounds all around me.<p>

"Where's my sister?!" a voice demanded, sounding completely panicked. There were muffled responses, spoken too quietly for me to hear, before rapid footsteps and the couch dipped slightly. I was still half asleep, and my exhaustion kept me from so much as opening my eyes. I vaguely wondered how long I'd been asleep for; George was still stroking my hair.

"What happened to her?" I recognized that voice. _Sam!_ I wanted to say, but I couldn't. "Is she alright?"

"She slept for barely an hour last night before she woke up again," George said quietly. "She wasn't crying anymore. That's a good thing, right?"

"I think she needs to cry," came a female's voice, but I couldn't make out who it was. "I still can't believe it happened. I woke up this morning and expected it all to be a nightmare…"

Everything was getting louder. It was brighter now than it was the last time I woke up, but the common room was oddly silent apart from my friend's voices.

"Do you think… do you really think it happened?" That was Lee… he sounded exhausted, and for the first time since I'd met him, I couldn't hear a grin in his voice. "What Harry said… do you really think it happened?"

Nobody answered him. I managed to push myself fully back into consciousness then, groggily opening my eyes and blinking rapidly as the bright light hit me full force. I dug my head further into George's chest.

I don't want to be awake. I don't want to face the world, not when everything was so peaceful when I was asleep.

"Bree…"

I looked up to see my brother's worried face. Behind him were Lee, Katie, Angelina, Alicia, Fred, and now Ron, Hermione, James, and Callie. Everybody was still wearing their clothes from the night before. Ron even still had his red face paint on.

Without sitting up, I scanned the common room. It was empty. Merlin, how early is it?

"What time is it?" I asked, my voice coming out a lot more croaky than I was expecting.

"It's about eight o'clock," Katie answered, her voice calmer than I'd ever heard it before. "Dumbledore gave everybody the day off, though. Most people are still in bed."

I nodded. Sam reached up and placed his hand on my arm, drawing my attention back to him as he barely managed to mask the concern on his face. "How are you feeling?"

It took me a moment to consider the question. "I'm not feeling much of anything," I answered simply, and it was true. The only thing on my mind was Cedric and Harry. I kept repeating when they reappeared over and over in my head, but I no longer felt anything. I just felt weak, like I couldn't even muster the energy to cry anymore.

From the corner of my eye, I saw George glance over at his brother quickly, both of them sporting identical worried looks.

"What happened?' I asked, when it seemed like nobody was going to say anything else. "In the maze? Harry was yelling something when he came back."

Our eyes all fell to James, and he bit his lip. He had dark bags under his eyes which contrasted with his paler than usual complexion. "It was _horrible,"_ he croaked out, "It was so much worse than I imagined it would be. The maze was so dark, like I could barely even see a foot ahead. There were things in there, but that wasn't the worst of it… the maze _was_ the challenge, it was moving… like it had a mind of its own… and then Krum attacked me… He looked mental; I think he was under the Imperius curse. His eyes were so blue they were almost white. He was the one that took out Fleur, before he came after me. I don't understand how it would be possible, though… like, I don't know who would have done it to him."

There was a pause where Ron glanced over at Sam and Hermione. "We do."

Everybody's eyes shot to him in shock.

He took a deep breath and looked nervous until Fred said loudly "well don't beat around the bush, little brother, tell us!"

"It was Professor Moody," Sam said.

Katie's jaw dropped. For a moment we were all silent, taking in the information. It just wasn't a plausible explanation… Moody was an ex-Auror, he hated anything related to the Dark Arts… and more so than that, he was a teacher. I mean, putting the Imperius curse on us in class to teach us about it was one thing, but this was something else entirely.

"He um, he's the one who put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, too," Ron continued, and Katie's jaw dropped again, after she'd just managed to shut it.

"What!" Angelina burst out.

"That can't be right. How do you even know this?" Fred demanded.

"He's not Moody. His names Barty Crouch Jr… he's Mr. Crouch's son, a Death Eater, who was impersonating Moody." Hermione said. She seemed to be the only one of the three fourth years who was thinking straight enough to form a full sentence.

"All year?" Katie asked, sounding completely appalled.

Hermione nodded. "All year," she repeated.

"But… why?" George asked, his voice sounding croaky, and he tightened his arm around my waist slightly, though I barely felt it.

"Are you saying that… that what Harry said happened last night… it really happened?" Lee asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Hermione nodded again, and I flopped back against George. This was too much to take in. It was _too much._

"That can't be possible… he died. He Who Must Not Be Named… _died_," Angelina said firmly, shaking her head. "We're safe now; we have been for thirteen years."

"He wasn't dead, he was just weakened. But he's back now," Sam said. I started shaking my head, and he stared up at me, looking sad and determined all at once. "I know you don't want to believe it, and I didn't either. But it's the truth. He's back. That's all we know."

"And how exactly do you know this? None of you answered my question!" Fred snapped, standing up and beginning to pace.

"Harry told us. I mean, he was there when he came back, when he killed Ced-" George's head shot up to shoot a glare at Ron, who suddenly looked horrified with himself. The way that everybody was looking at him led me to believe that they'd all agreed not to mention Cedric before I'd woken up.

"Things like this…" I said, speaking for the first time since Ron had begun the story. "They just don't happen. They _don't."_

Nobody answered. Fred was still pacing, and everybody had looks of disbelief on their faces. The silence was eventually broken by Sam.

"Things like this do happen," he said quietly. "But they shouldn't."

* * *

><p><strong>George's POV <strong>

There has never been anything in my life that I have hated more than the feeling of helplessness.

There has never been a time in my life where I have felt that emotion more than I have this week.

Even a week later, we were all struggling to come to accept the fact that the Dark Lord was back. I mean, this man had been dead for thirteen years, and Harry arriving back from the third task, clutching a dead body, and screaming that You-Know-Who was still alive… well, it was hard to believe. Mostly, I think, because we all really, really don't want to believe that it could be possible. That and the fact that a teacher, someone who is meant to protect us, had been an imposter secretly working to hurt us for a whole year… well, it was a lot to come to terms with.

Karkaroff and Zira fled. Callie told us that they were gone not even an hour after the end of the third task. We soon found out that Karkaroff was an ex-death eater who had sold out several others in order to keep his own ass out of Azkaban, so it was obvious why he had chosen to flee. But nobody really knew about Zira. One theory was that she was a Death Eater who was never caught.

I suppose we'll eventually find out.

The most pressing thing on all our minds, however, was Cedric Diggory's death. We all knew him, even if we weren't particularly close, and we all knew what a terrible loss his death was. I still could hardly believe that it had happened; everything had just happened so fast.

It was obvious to all of us that Bree was not dealing with Cedric's death at all. She wasn't okay, and I have no idea how to fix that. I have no idea how to comfort her. And for this reason, above all the others, for the past week… I have felt absolutely and utterly helpless.

She was spending most of the day in bed, which worried me more than I'd like to admit out loud. Thank Merlin for Katie Bell; she was giving Sam regular updates but she always ensured that I was present when she gave them. Bree didn't leave the dormitory at meal times because she seemed to have lost her appetite. The only reason she ate was to keep people from worrying about her, so she silently picked at everything that Katie brought up to her. It wasn't fooling anybody.

For not the first time in my life, I cursed the enchantment on the staircases that was keeping me from going up there myself. She emerged at night when the other girls were all in the dormitory and she knew nobody would be in the common room. The first time she decided to do this was three days after Cedric had died… three days since I had seen her. She looked completely different, with bags under her eyes and paler than usual skin. It was honestly heartbreaking.

For the rest of the week, she slept in the common room at night, and I did all I could to comfort her and try and ease this feeling of utter helplessness. It was obvious to me that she hadn't been sleeping at all the nights that she had spent in the dormitory by how exhausted she was the first night she'd decided against staying in her dormitory. But what could I do? I remembered that the first night we had done this, right after Cedric and Harry had appeared out of the maze, she had seemed to like it when I stroked her hair. So I did that, and before long she drifted to sleep. And I kept doing that, each time I woke up from her clutching as tightly to me as possible from the nightmares she was stuck in every time she closed her eyes.

I wondered what she was so terrified of but never asked. I didn't want to cause her more pain than she was already in. So for the rest of the week, until the end of the term, I took comfort in the fact that she knew she could lean on me, and finally, on the last night of the term, she didn't have any more nightmares.

* * *

><p><strong>Bree's POV<strong>

For the last week of term, I put more effort than anything else into keeping my mind a blank slate. I didn't think about Karkaroff and Zira; I didn't think about Mad Eye Moody being an imposter; and I didn't think about the return of the Dark Lord. Because whenever I thought about any of these things, it inevitably led me back to Cedric Diggory, and there was no way that I was ready to face that yet.

I mostly stayed in my dormitory during the day because nobody else was up there. I couldn't sleep and for the first time in my life I had absolutely no appetite, so I passed the time by reading. I read the books that George had gotten me for my birthday, and it was amazing that he'd managed to pick out novels that I would genuinely enjoy. Books had always made me happy and took my mind off of whatever was happening in my life at the time. Unfortunately, this time, it wasn't working. I could barely enjoy them. They really only served as temporary distractions.

During the nights when the girls were back in the dormitories I found it hard to stay there. It was too crowded, and I knew Katie was watching me continually. It made me feel like a glass doll, so I ended up leaving to spend time in the common room at night, because I knew it would be empty. It's not like I was sleeping much anyway.

However, it wasn't empty. The first night I emerged, George was up late working on an essay for potions class. I saw the worry in his eyes but he never pushed me to say anything, and for that I was grateful. Truthfully, I didn't know what I would say.

He stayed with me every night for the rest of the week, simply holding me when I could barely sleep in the early hours of the morning without seeing Cedric's face, and stroking my hair comfortingly. There was something inexplicably soothing about that motion. There was something inexplicably soothing about George's presence, actually. So much so that when I woke up and he was still sleeping, just having him there was enough to comfort me. By the end of the week, I was no longer dreaming of Cedric.

I thought more than once it must have been bothersome how much I was leaning on George, but he never said anything. Neither did I, because truthfully, I'm not sure I could cope without him.

Dumbledore didn't let me go on like this for much longer. A week after the third task, on the last day of the school term, it was time for Cedric's memorial.

I didn't want to go. I really didn't. I felt guilty for trying to keep him out of my head for the past few days, but I don't think I was ready to face him yet. George met me at the bottom of the dormitory staircase, enveloping my small hand with his larger one and giving me a reassuring smile. I could see the worry in his eyes. I could see it in all their eyes, as the rest of my friends stood from where they had been sitting by the fire. It made me feel like an alien, or a science project, the way they all were looking at me. So I mustered the biggest smile I could manage for them, as George began to lead me out of the common room.

The trek down to the Great Hall left me feeling increasingly nauseous, with the brunt of it hitting me as I was about to step into the Hall. The Room was nearly full but deathly silent. I hadn't seen anybody except my close friends in a whole week, and the prospect of walking in there and talking to them about Cedric was too much.

I pulled my hand out of George's and stumbled backwards, trying not to throw up. He turned and came after me, the rest of our friends not noticing as they continued walking down the Hall.

"Hey," he said quietly, reaching out and grabbing my hand, holding it to him as I tried to pull it away. "What's wrong?"

I felt myself getting flushed, the nauseous feeling only growing as my breathing quickened. I couldn't stop the panic from seeping into my body. "I can't do this, George. I can't do this yet," I whispered, shaking my head and trying to pull away again, intent on running back to the common room and hiding in my room, maybe reading one of my books. Anything but this.

"Bree," he said, only holding my hand tighter and pulling me towards him as gently as he could, raising his other hand to rest on my cheek and bring me to look up at him. "It's okay. Calm down."

I shook my head quickly, my breathing still fast, and he leant down to rest his forehead on mine, effectively stopping me from moving any further back. "Breezy, _it's okay_. You can do this; I know you can do this. Just breathe for me, come on."

He took in a deep breath and then let it out. His eyes implored me to do the same and I took a shuddering breath in at the same time he did, letting it out slowly. As we continued this, his hand reached back to stroke my hair, effectively starting to calm me down. That combined with the concentration I was putting on my breathing soon stopped my mind from racing the way it had been.

I opened my eyes a moment later to see George staring down at me. "I'm right here," he whispered. "I'll be with you the whole time. You're not alone, Bree. It's okay."

Nodding, I pulled back as he brought his hand away from my hair. He retook my hand and tugged me to his side, smiling reassuringly as he led me into the Hall.

Fred was sitting with Sam, a gap large enough for George and myself between them. Harry was sitting next to Sam, staring at the floor, looking like he was deep in thought. It was the first time I'd seen him since the third task.

My brother looked up at me when I sat down, smiling reassuringly at me. His smile was always so innocent, so happy, that I could never help but smile back, too. This time was no exception.

Dumbledore was sitting in his chair at the front of the Hall, staring off to the side. It looked like, for the first time since I'd met him, he was completely lost for words.

"Today we acknowledge… a really terrible loss," he said, finally looking up and around at the people gathered in the Hall. He spoke quietly, but nobody in the Hall had any problem hearing him.

I squeezed George's hand tightly. He didn't let go, and for that I was thankful.

"Cedric Diggory was a person who exemplified many of the qualities which distinguishes Hufflepuff House. He was, as you all know, exceptionally hard working, infinitely fair minded… and most importantly, a fierce, _fierce_ friend. Now I think, therefore, that you have the right to know exactly how he died. You see, Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, trying to stop the tears that I could already feel forming, but it was no use. I had forced myself to keep Cedric out of my head all week; this was the first time that I'd allowed myself to sit down and think about him. And now all I could think about was how he'd died. He had been murdered in cold blood. He must have been so terrified…

"The Ministry of Magic does not wish for me to tell you this, and it is possible some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so- either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you, as young as you are. But not to do so, I think, would be an insult to his memory!"

Dumbledore was standing now, surveying the hall. His voice was becoming more pained as he continued.

"Every guest in this Hall will be welcomed back here, at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Now the pain that we all feel at this dreadful loss reminds me, reminds _us,_ that though we may come from different lands and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great, and it is for this reason that the bonds of friendship we have made this year will be more important than ever! Remember that, and Cedric Diggory will not have died in vain."

I brought my hand up to cover my mouth, trying not to let my tears turn into the sobs I felt coming on. George yanked his hand out of mine and I barely had enough time to look up at him in confusion before he'd wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to his side and rubbing my back soothingly. It was this that kept me quiet, as I looked back up at Dumbledore, who in this moment looked sadder than I had ever seen him.

"You _remember_ that… and we will celebrate a boy who was kind and honest… and brave and true… right to the very end."

I clutched tighter to George as Dumbledore finished speaking. I felt horrible and upset all over again, but in a way… it felt kind of good. I had shut Cedric out for the past week, but now I was thinking about the first time we'd met; about how often I had completely embarrassed myself in front of him, and how he really only seemed to find it endearing; about how I'd spent the majority of my time for the past few weeks teaching him and learning from him; about the way that he would listen to me, and care; and most of all, the trust and kindness he extended to every single person he'd ever met, without fail. Cedric was just a really good person, to put it in the simplest of terms. I had no bad memories of Cedric, really… our friendship had always been smooth and easy from the very first moment I met him. What hurt was the realization that I would never have any of that again… That he was gone from my life, taken so suddenly.

And that hurt so badly I thought my heart was slowly breaking inside of my chest.

Dumbledore was right. The new friends and the old friends that I have in my life, I can't let them go so easily. Because every single person is important, and I don't know how much time I might have with them.

I'd thought that leaving Walden and coming to England had been life changing, but that was nothing compared to this. I knew that everything was going to change now, whether it was for better or for worse. Now that we'd lost someone so special, and especially now that Lord Voldemort had returned to power. We couldn't remain the same, not after everything that had happened.

And Cedric wouldn't want us to.

* * *

><p>The next day brought more tears. The Hogwarts students would be seeing off the other three schools before we left for the train station. If anything, this goodbye was worse than the one I had to endure when I'd left Walden last year.<p>

Callie was clutching on tightly to me, and I was hugging her just as hard. "Write to me every day, okay?" she asked, her voice muffled both by my shoulder and from her tears.

"Every day," I agreed, and just then a body colliding with my back sent us nearly toppling to the ground.

"EVERY DAY!" James yelled from behind me, clutching me just as tight as Callie was. "We want to know everything! Even the small things, like what you ate for breakfast or if you think your tits have gotten any bigger-"

"I'll keep you updated on that front, mate- OW!" I heard Lee say smugly from somewhere above me, and turned my head in time to glimpse Fred and George hit him simultaneously from either side.

"I'm just really gonna miss you guys!" I cried, and Callie nodded her agreement.

James left to speak to Lee and the twins then. I was glad that they'd gotten along so well this year.

Sniffing, Callie drew back slightly and smiled down at me. She said sadly, "I really wish I didn't have to leave you right now."

Shaking my head, I gave her the most reassuring smile I could muster. "I'll be okay. I promise."

"I know you will be," she answered, a mischievous smile coming to her face. "You have Georgie boy to take care of you now. Do keep me updated on how that relationship develops, wont you?"

She just laughed when I pulled away and slapped her arm.

I said goodbye to all the other Walden students, once again stopping when I reached James. "_Please_ take care of yourself!" I said imploringly, and James grinned and shrugged before bringing his hand up to mess up my hair.

"I'll take care of him," Callie said, looping her arm through his and shooting me one last grin, before James stepped forward to wrap me in a quick hug.

"I'll see you soon, short stuff. Stay safe." He said quietly, before they both turned and left for the Walden Carriage.

George stepped up beside me as I watched them go, a thoughtful look on his face. "Are they dating?" he asked suddenly. "I've been wondering all year, to be honest."

I smiled. "They're best friends, but it's been obvious since practically the day they met that they're meant to be together. And I've been waiting since then for them to admit it."

"Huh. That sounds like another couple I know," Fred said from behind us, but he wandered off before I could ask him who he meant.

Sam joined us then, having just finished saying goodbye to Callie, with Ron, Hermione, and Harry by his side.

"I wonder how the Durmstrang students will be getting home," Ron said curiously. "Do you think they can steer that ship without Karkaroff?"

"Karkaroff did not steer," came a gruff voice from behind us. "He stayed in his cabin and let us do all the vork."

We all turned to see Viktor standing behind us, looking unsure of himself. "May I have a vord?" he asked Hermione carefully, and she nodded cheerily. This seemed to reassure him, and he returned her smile.

They stepped a few paces away to where I saw Katie and Alicia chatting to some of the Durmstrang boys. When Hermione and Viktor arrived next to them, Katie eyed them off gleefully and stepped up close to eavesdrop on their conversation. I rolled my eyes, trying to hide an amused smile, and turned back to the people around me.

Ron was staring after them in concern. "You'd better hurry up!" he called, and Fred muttered something that made Ron turn and glare at him. He tried to be secretive about it, but we all knew that he was watching them from the corner of his eye.

They returned quite soon. Viktor just looked at Harry for a moment before he said abruptly "I liked Diggory. He vos alvays polite to me. Alvays. Even though I vos from Durmstrang- with Karkaroff."

"Have you got a new headmaster yet?" Harry asked, and Viktor shrugged.

"The Walden students have the same problem, I suppose. I never liked Zira," I said thoughtfully, and Viktor turned to look at me.

He held out his hand to shake mine, a smile replacing the scowl on his face from when he had spoken of Karkaroff. "It has been a pleasure to meet you. You're a very interesting person."

I smiled at him, slightly surprised he'd said anything. "I'm embarrassing; don't worry, you can say it. But yeah, it was great to meet you too, Viktor."

He turned to shake Harry, Sam, and Ron's hands before he turned to walk away. Ron glanced down at his hand and then up at Viktor's retreating form, looking as though he was suffering some sort of painful internal struggle. Suddenly, he burst out "Can I have your autograph?!"

Hermione turned away to hide her grin as Viktor turned back. Looking surprised, but gratified, he signed a fragment of parchment for Ron.

Looking distinctly happier than he had before, Ron tucked the piece of parchment into his pants pocket, where he kept a hand hovering for the rest of the afternoon, as though to protect it.

"It's nice," I said gently, "to see so many different people together. That's something the Triwizard Tournament achieved, at least."

Lee glanced down at me, an unreadable expression on his face, before glancing back up just in time to see the Beauxbatons carriage fly past where we stood, over the Walden carriage as it disappeared into the Forbidden Forest, and over the Blake Lake, where it passed the Durmstrang ship as it disappeared down into the ocean.

"I don't know what's gonna happen next," he said quietly, "but we're here for you. You may be an American cheerleader, but you're also one of us now. You know that, right?"

I couldn't help the smile that came to my face. It's astounding how lucky I am to have these people in my life. It's still hard to believe how much I dreaded moving to England a year ago. I could have said all that, but instead, all I said was "I wasn't a cheerleader."

"Really? You're plenty preppy enough. But I suppose the fact that you can barely walk and talk at the same time would've worked against you."

* * *

><p>Less than an hour later, I was saying goodbye to Hogwarts for the holidays, and it was feeling very bittersweet. Hogwarts had become a home to me over the last few months, and all the people surrounding me had become my family. I knew it would be good for me to have some time off though, and the sadness at leaving was almost completely overridden by the excitement I felt at the prospect of seeing Toby and spending some time with my actual family.<p>

I found myself in a compartment on the train with Sam and his friends, along with the twins and Lee. I was talking more freely and openly than I had all week… and it felt _good_. It felt like Dumbledore's speech had really opened me up.

Harry had been eyeing off the twins for around five minutes now, and it seemed he could no longer keep in what he was thinking about. "Are you going to tell us, then?!"

"Tell you what?" Fred asked distractedly, not looking up from the game of exploding snap he was playing with Lee and George.

"Who you were blackmailing," Harry clarified, and my head shot up so fast my neck cracked audibly.

The twins winced simultaneously as I burst out "YOU'VE BEEN BLACKMAILING SOMEONE?!"

"Shit," Fred muttered, shooting Harry a glare, "Now you've done it."

"It doesn't matter," George said hurriedly. "It's not important. Not now, anyway…"

"You've been _blackmailing_ someone?!" I repeated, my voice lower and harsher. "Are you two absolutely insane?! You could get _arrested_!"

"It was necessary!" Fred cried, holding up his hands in a gesture for me to calm down.

"Who was it then?" Ron demanded, unable to keep his curiosity at bay any longer. "If it's so unimportant now, then who is it?!"

We continued pushing for information for another moment or so, until George said "Alright! If you really want to know so badly… it was Ludo Bagman."

"Bagman?" Harry asked sharply. "What in the world for?"

Fred glanced at George warily before he answered. "You remember that bet we had with him, at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch?"

"Yes…" Harry said slowly. I, of course, knew nothing about this, so I stayed quiet.

"I still think it's amazing you two predicted that," Lee butted in.

"Well," George continued as though she hadn't spoken, "the git paid us in Leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."

"So?" Ron asked.

"_So,_ it had disappeared by the next morning."

Hermione looked scandalized. "It must have been a mistake, though, mustn't it?"

George laughed bitterly. "See, that's what we thought at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up, but nothing doing. He ignored out letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."

"In the end, he turned pretty nasty," Fred continued. "Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't going to give us anything."

"So we asked for our money back,"

"And he told us to bugger off."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious!"

"But that was all your savings!" Ron cried.

"Tell us about it," George said, gesturing for Lee to continue the story. "We found out what was going on in the end."

Frowning, Lee leant forwards and began to speak. "My dad had trouble getting money off of Bagman, too. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins; he borrowed loads of gold off of them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had on him at the time, but it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him."

"The idiot has lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two galleons to rub together. And do you know how he tried to pay the goblins back?!" George continued, and when nobody said anything, he gestured to Harry and continued. "He put a bet on you to win the Tournament. A _big_ bet against the goblins."

"So that's why he kept trying to help me win!" Harry cried. "But- wait- I did win, didn't I? So he can pay you back your gold now?"

"Nope," George shook his head. "The goblins play just as dirty as he does. They say you drew with Cedric, and Bagman was betting you'd win outright. So Bagman had to run for it. He left right after the third task."

Fred sighed deeply, and began dealing out the cards again. George glanced at me, looking unsure as to how I would react to their story, but I just smiled sadly and leant into him, as I had been doing before they had begun their story. I looked up to see Fred and Sam looking at us with very similar smirks on their faces, but they both looked away quickly.

We arrived at Kings Cross station what felt like minutes later, but was really much longer. I wasn't sure how I felt about leaving this compartment and going back to the real world again, but staring out into the hoards of people waiting on the platform, I supposed I'd soon find out.

I was on the platform with Sam clutching at my coat before I realized that the twins weren't behind me, as I'd assumed they would be. Katie, Angelina, and Alicia were, and they all rushed forwards to gather me in a group hug as Sam said goodbye to Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

"I'm gonna miss you guys!" Katie wailed loudly, and Alicia sniffed, trying to hide the fact that she'd let a few tears escape. "We'll all meet in Diagon Alley as soon as possible, agreed?!"

"Oh, agreed!" I said, excited at the idea. I didn't want to spend the next few months without these girls around at least some of the time.

I saw from the corner of my eye Harry turning to leave and I hurried over to him after one last wave to the girls, suddenly having an uncontrollable urge to speak to him before he left.

"Harry!" I called, and he turned, looking at me curiously. I don't know what I intended to say or do, but whatever it was, I fell short once I reached him. So instead, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him to me in a hug. His body stiffened slightly in surprise, before he relaxed and returned it. I pulled away after a moment and really_ looked_ at him for the first time in weeks. "We're gonna be okay," I said gently, and somehow in that moment, I knew it was true.

He looked surprised, but slowly a smile spread across his face. I ruffled his hair before he turned to leave, just as Fred and George appeared. They wore identical looks of wonder on this faces, as George held a bag that seemed to be overflowing with something. It was only in sight for a moment before he shoved it into his bag, but that was long enough for me to recognize the silver symbol on the bag.

"Is that… _the Triwizard winnings_?" I asked, shocked, and they both looked at me. Fred nodded, still in a daze.

"He gave it to us," he said in complete wonder, "Wouldn't take no for an answer,"

"Oh, Merlin," I said, too shocked to think of much else to say.

George seemed to be slowly overcoming his shock and his excitement was growing. "Have you any idea how much money is in there?! That's more than Bagman owed us! Imagine what we can do with cash like that!"

As always, George's excitement was seemingly contagious, and I began to laugh. "That's amazing!"

I was about to say more when I heard a familiar voice shout "BREE MONTERO!" from somewhere behind me. The money completely forgotten for the moment, I spun around in search of the owner of the voice, only to see Toby making his way through the crowd, searching frantically for Sam and I.

I lost my breath for a moment. My brothers are the two most important people in my life, and I hadn't seen Toby in months. I screamed his name, garnering a few surprised looked from the people around us, as I took off running towards my brother. He turned just in time to see me jump on him in an excited hug, and he caught me slightly clumsily, a booming laugh escaping him. He struggled to gain his balance until another body collided to my back, throwing their arms around the two of us, and this was what caused Toby to lose his balance and topple backwards onto the ground. I recognized the elated laughter from behind me as Sam's, and soon joined in.

"We cant take you three anywhere," said an exasperated voice from above us, and I turned my head to see my Dad grinning down at us. He bent down to take Sam's hand and pull him to his feet, in turn giving me enough room to stand. I launched myself at my Father this time and he caught me with a grunt off effort as my Mom appeared, wrapping her arms around my back and pulling Sam into the hug, laughing the entire time.

Eventually I pulled back and looked around at my family. Toby had grown his hair out to his shoulders, and it was a dark brown which contrasted brilliantly with Sam and my own light blonde hair. We all had the same heart shaped face and green eyes, so there were obvious similarities between the three of us. Toby was ridiculously tall (probably nearly as tall as the twins), and it seemed like Sam was heading that way, too. I, on the other hand, was probably stuck this short forever.

My Mom was a beautiful woman with light blonde hair, a round, youthful face, and large brown eyes. My Father had dark brown hair, like Toby's, and a fair amount of stubble from being too lazy to shave most days. He also had the bright green eyes that all his children had inherited, which always showed his emotions clearly.

"I missed you both so much!" Toby cried, looking down at Sam and I. "Oh, wow, you look so much bigger than the last time I saw you, Sammy! Not you, Bree. Did you get shorter?"

"Oh, har har," I said sarcastically, punching his upper arm as he grinned. It was then that I remembered the twins, and I spun around to find them chatting with their mother and father but watching my family reunion in amusement.

Dad had been watching me, trying unsuccessfully to mask the concern on his face since I'd first seen him. I ignored it, but once I noticed it, it was difficult not to notice the fact that the rest of my family were hiding very similar expressions and seemingly thinking that they were all very stealthy about it. In an effort to put off what I knew they wanted for just a tiny bit longer, I left them to speak to the twins.

I heard Dad say cheerily from behind me, "Ah, Arthur!" and he followed me as I walked towards the Weasley's. Dad didn't leave me wondering how they knew each other for long, as Arthur clapped him on the back excitedly as though they were good friends and Dad began to explain.

"Arthur, this is my wife, Annabel; and my children, Toby, Sam, and Bree," he said, before turning to us. "I work with Arthur at the Ministry. Different sections, same lunch room… You know how it works."

Arthur's eyes lit up as he looked at me, and I smiled up at him. I did like that man. "Ah, Thomas, I didn't realize Bree was your daughter! I should have known, the similarities were staring me right in the face!"

"Yeah, she's my girl. I wasn't aware the two of you had met, though?"

"We met before the third task of the Triwizard Tournament," Arthur explained quickly, "My wife and I went to watch Harry compete."

I saw Dad's shoulders tense noticeably. "Ah," was all he said. Arthur noticed the mood change and quickly tried to rectify the situation.

"Oh, you haven't met my family yet!" he said excitedly, as he stepped back and held his arms out as though gesturing for Dad to admire his family. Mum stepped forwards, always excited to meet new people, and began chattering along happily with the Weasley clan.

"You're Fred and George, then, I presume?" Toby asked the twins, stepping forwards and extending his hand to shake theirs in his typical macho way. Toby firmly believed that you can tell a lot about a person from their handshake, and from the look on his face, both boys passed the test. "Bree never shuts up about you."

The twins grinned identically as I elbowed Toby in the side.

As Arthur and Dad continued to chatter away (they really were quite sweet together, I'd never met anyone before who matched my Dad's enthusiasm for everyday life), George grabbed my elbow and led me away from them. Toby eyed us off carefully. He fit the most typical protective big brother stereotype possible, I swear.

George seemed unsure of what to say for a moment, just staring down at me, before he said quietly "look, I want you to owl me if you need me these holidays, alright? Seriously, anytime you want. Even if it's like, one in the morning. Promise?"

I couldn't help but smile at his concern. "I promise."

"Good," he said simply, before he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me to him in a tight hug. George had become so comforting to me over the past week; I immediately buried my face in his chest and sighed. "Even if you don't need me, owl me anyway. I'll take you on a sightseeing tour of England," he said into my hair, and I laughed at the prospect.

"You've got yourself a deal, Mr. Weasley," I said, pulling away and looking up at him. He smiled down at me, and my own fell slightly. "I'm really going to miss you, Georgie," I said simply, and his eyes softened.

He was about to respond when Dad called my name, waving for us to return to where our families stood.

"Well, we'd best be off. I expect we'll be seeing quite a bit of each other these holidays, though," Dad said cheerily once we'd reached them, and I glanced up at him in confusion. He didn't notice, but merely wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me away with him. I turned and waved one last time at the twins before they disappeared amongst the crowd.

* * *

><p>The entire way home in the car (we could have apparated, but Mom likes to maintain a sense of 'normalcy') Sam chattered away excitedly about Hogwarts, as I added in my own bit every now and then. Mom and Dad were happy to hear about it, asking questions at various points, eager to learn all about how we'd adapted to Hogwarts and really just pleased we'd adapted at all. It wasn't until we got home that the tough stuff started.<p>

I hopped out of the car and looked up at our house. Honestly, I didn't even remember what it looked like throughout the school year, and if you'd asked me to point it out on a map, I wouldn't have been able to. I only spent a short week here before the school term started. It was nice, with a balcony around the front with cushiony chairs I knew I'd enjoy. It was all very modern and… white. That's all there really was to say about it, to be honest.

The interior was nicer. It was still very modern but it looked very homey and warm, with photographs and childhood drawings decorating the walls.

Sam and I immediately headed towards the staircase to put our things in our room, but Dad stopped us.

"Guys, can you come here?" he asked, looking suddenly very serious. "I want to talk to you."

I glanced down at Sam warily, and he returned it. Together, we left our trunks in the hallway and headed through the open arch that led into the living room, sitting on one of the couches when Dad gestured for us to. Our parents sat down on the other couch, which faced ours with only a small glass table between us, and Toby stood somewhat back from the couch, crossing and uncrossing his arms nervously.

"Look, guys," Dad said in his 'fatherly comfort' tone, and I immediately knew to expect the worst from this conversation. "We have to talk about what happened at school this year."

I froze, averting my eyes to stare at the ground. I knew this was coming; this was what those looks were for. But I didn't want to do this.

"Dad, we're tired…" Sam started, noticing the way that my body had tensed beside his, but Dad shook his head and cut him off.

"I know it affected the both of you greatly- it would have affected everybody present. Merlin, I still can't believe it happened…" Dad shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "Bree, I know you were friends with the boy-"

"So what?" I asked suddenly, still not looking up from the ground. "I've done all the talking I need to do. I came home so I could spend time with my family and stop talking about Cedric. So what is this meant to achieve?"

Dad just stared at me for a second, before glancing over his shoulder at Toby, and nodding.

"You know if you ever need it, we're here for you, don't you darling?" Mum asked quietly, and I looked up and finally smiled at her, nodding slightly.

I went to stand before Dad reached over and put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. I flopped back down on the couch and looked up at him in curiosity, hoping and praying that he wouldn't continue to push this subject.

"There's something else," he said slowly. "We all know that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back… I don't know how, I don't know why, but I know that it's a fact."

He paused, as though to see how Sam and I were going to react, but we simply nodded slightly for him to continue. "We can't just ignore that. Look, I can't say much at this stage, because it's not safe. That, and the fact that I hardly know anything at the moment… but we wont be spending much time here these holidays."

Sam tilted his head slightly to the side. "What do you mean, Dad?"

"We'll be leaving in two weeks to stay somewhere else. Look, I know this is very vague but I_ promise_ you it's for the best. Can you trust that?"

I was just confused. He'd raised more questions than he'd answered. Why did our living arrangements have anything to do with You-Know-Who? Why were we moving at all? I was about to say something, to demand answers, but I stopped once I looked at my Dad. Now that he was no longer smiling, the dark bags under his eyes were more prominent. And I trusted that no matter how little information he gave us, he would give us more eventually. My Dad was going to take care of us, and that's all that mattered right now.

"Okay," I said simply, instead of all the other things I wanted to say. "That's okay."

He looked relieved. "Thank you, Bree. I promise you'll understand everything soon."

This time, nobody stopped me when I stood. Sam quickly followed me when he realized we were free to go. I was about to lift up my trunk again when suddenly, I remembered something.

With a loud "HA!" I took out my wand and made my trunk appear in my bedroom. "Hey family, I can use magic now!"

There was a loud groan from Toby and I heard him mutter from where he was still in the living room "Merlin, as if she wasn't dangerously naïve enough without magic."

So to prove how much of a mature adult witch I was, I jelly legs jinxed him and skipped up the stairs to my room.

* * *

><p><strong>So this one was longer than I expected it to be. I've been considering chucking in some sections with George's POV for a while, and this kind of just flowed out of me. Let me know whether you liked that or not!<strong>

**Grief is very hard to write. For any of you that's ever lost someone, you'd know that it's a very difficult emotion to put into words. But I tried my best! I kind of love this one though; George is so lovely. **


	15. Welcome to the House of Horrors

Being back at home with my family was so relieving; I could barely even find words to describe it. There was just something undeniably comfortable about being back with the people I loved most in this world. Mom was an interior decorator (a damn good one) and was at work most days, but we weren't really too sure about Dad. He didn't provide any real answer when we asked, just said that he had 'important business to take care of' before he left the house every day. We spent time together whenever possible, but I didn't really mind their absence. Some people find this strange, but I'd always taken greater comfort from my brothers than my parents. We were extremely close siblings.

The three of us spent every day together, and I loved it. It had been almost a whole year since I had last seen Toby, and our regular letters weren't nearly enough. I saw Sam on a regular basis, but with how busy the school year had been, we'd had hardly any time to spend any quality time together.

Toby had taken a holiday from the hospital to spend time with us. He tried his best to show us around London by taking us to the traditional touristy spots, like Big Ben. When we tired of that, we resorted to our favorite activities; staying at home, baking and curling up on the sofa to lose ourselves in our favorite films.

I think that one of the things that I disliked about boarding school was the lack of a kitchen. If I wanted food, the house elves prepared it in an instant, but that wasn't how I liked to do things. Ever since I was young, I've loved to bake. Mum used to sit me on the kitchen counter whilst she would prepare meals and let me do smaller jobs as I got older (similarly Toby would sit me on the kitchen counter whilst he decided which flavor of chips he wanted to eat, but somehow I don't think that had much of a positive affect on my growing enjoyment of being in a kitchen). Kitchens were like a safe zone for me to lose myself as I bake away my worries. And in the past two weeks of the school holidays… I'd been baking away a lot of worries.

I'd just finished up an apple pie and placed it in the oven when Toby walked in, a copy of _The Daily Prophet_ in his hands. He threw it onto the counter next to me and left the room again, calling back over his shoulder "There's a story in there about that crazy woman's story you're following like mad."

"Ah!" I gasped excitedly, diving forward and snatching up the paper, flicking through it frantically until I found what I was looking for. What Toby was referring to was a story I'd been following for the past few weeks. A woman named Teresa Lorraine was a world renowned seer who has started up a sort of travelling psychic shop fifteen years ago. She did palm readings, astronomy readings, tea leaf readings… you name it, she did it. She was amazingly popular; most seers were more reserved and didn't like to use their gifts in such an in-your-face (and decidedly money driven) way. Anyway, word had come out recently that she was a total fake. No seer like abilities whatsoever; just really fantastic bullshitting abilities, apparently. I mean, how crazy is that?! People idolized this fucking woman. My Mom is gonna have trust issues for the rest of her life because of this woman.

Whilst many were struggling emotionally from the betrayal and shock, I, on the other hand, was loving it. There's been a massive inquiry about it and the media won't leave her alone; it's literally everywhere. I'd been hungrily devouring every bit of gossip about it I could get my hands on.

This article wasn't anything new; mostly just previous information summed up into a neat little package with the editor's views upon the matter (as outraged as you'd expect). I was nearly at the end and hardly paying attention when I stopped dead.

'_Lorraine has made no other comments about the scandal except consistently denying that her abilities are not fake and that she will not be cancelling her Summer tour. Truly, a tale worthy of Harry Potter!'_

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I screeched, and Toby ran back into the room, looking panicked.

"What! What happened?!" he demanded, before glancing down at me staring at the paper in horror. His posture relaxed as he looked relieved, and then suddenly very angry. "For Merlin's sake, Bree, it's a bunch of shit anyway! Will you stop getting so sensitive about that damn woman? You scared the shit out of me, yelling like that!"

My head snapped up so I could glare at him, and he faltered slightly. "Okay, for one thing, it is _not_ a bunch of shit, it's a serious issue! And for another thing, did you even read this article?!"

"Of course not," he said bluntly, and I rolled my eyes.

"They used Harry as a little punch line to their jokes!" I cried, completely enraged. I didn't even _understand_ the joke, to be honest, but I certainly know enough to see when someone is being mocked.

I expected Toby's outrage to be close to mine, but he surprised me. Instead, he frowned, and looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Oh," he said quietly, "_that."_

I stayed silent, waiting for more, but when he didn't say anything, I cried out, "Well, what the hell is _that _supposed to mean?"

"Well, actually, now you mention it… they've been doing that for weeks," Toby said, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

The silence hung heavily in the air for a moment. Then, I screeched loudly "WHAT THE FUCK!"

He winced visibly at my tone of voice. There were footsteps on the stairs and the next moment, Sam came into view. He looked confused, like he'd just woken up. "What's all the yelling about?"

"Have you seen this?!" I cried, holding up the newspaper and shaking it.

Sam looked confused. "Is this another story about that fake seer? Cause if so, my answers gonna have to be no,"

I rolled my eyes and threw the paper down onto the counter. "Harry! They're insulting him! It's like he's just some big joke, and apparently it's been doing this for a while now!"

His eyes narrowed in confusion as he came forwards, snatching the paper off of the desk and looking at the article.

"I didn't think this was going to be such a shock all of a sudden. I mean, Bree, I thought you read the_ Prophet_!" Toby asked.

"Well, not so much lately. I mean, I've just not really been interested in it. Things have been a little different for me these holidays," I said uncomfortably, not willing to continue. I didn't need to; Toby nodded his understanding.

"But what are they doing?" Sam asked. "There's been no mention of what happened at the third task that I can tell, of You-Know-Who, or of anything else. What's going on?"

Toby looked suddenly very nervous, and unsure of himself. "Look guys, just… come on," he said, and Sam and I followed him curiously into the living room, where he sat on one of the couches. We followed suit once he gestured for us to sit on the couches opposite him.

"Toby, what's going on?!" I asked, noting his increasingly nervous demeanor.

"Look, I thought Dad would have said something by now," he started, looking up at us and frowning, seeming to make up his mind. "I've never kept anything from you guys before and I don't intend to start now."

Sam glanced over to me in confusion before Toby kept talking.

"Sam, you're right," he began, "There's not been any mention of You-Know-Who and what happened during the third task."

"Why not?" Sam demanded quickly. "Are they keeping it quiet?"

"The minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, doesn't believe what happened that night. He's using all of his influence over the_ Prophet_ to smear the name of anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned."

"_What_!" I cried, horrified, as Sam yelled something similar. "Why in the world would he want to do that?!"

"Honestly? I have no idea. I imagine that Dad would have a better idea of it than I do," he shrugged. "There's been no mention of the third task but I think it's asking for too much for that to continue. If I had to make a prediction, I'd say that any day now his smears on Harry Potter will increase. Throwing him in as a running joke isn't going to last much longer."

"What makes you say that?" Sam asked.

Toby sighed. "Because Dumbledore isn't staying quiet like Fudge wants him to."

I took a moment to consider what he'd told us. "What about where Dad keeps taking off to?" I asked finally, unable to hold back my curiosity.

Shrugging, he replied "Sorry, but that's something I really can't say anything about. I can try, but I _physically can't _tell you anything. I know that you'll know soon, though."

"I am so sick of being told that!" Sam burst out and I nodded my agreement.

"Tell me about it," I muttered to him.

"Look, guys, I don't know what to tell you!" Toby said forcefully. "Things are bad at the moment. They're confusing. Nobody knows what's really going on. Hell, even the people who were there the night of the third task have no fucking idea what's going on! We literally have no option right now but to wait it out and see what happens."

Toby's speech had brought something else to the forefront of my mind. "What are they saying then? About Cedric?" I asked carefully.

Both Toby and Sam's heads predictably shot towards me. Toby looked more uncomfortable speaking now than he had since we'd first sat down. "Well, they're… not really saying anything, actually."

My whole body tensed. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"They obviously had an obituary for him in the paper a few weeks ago. I mean they spoke about him but they just haven't connected his death to the third task yet."

I felt my face heating up but somehow I felt sort of clammy at the same time. "A boy died- he was _murdered_ by You-Know-Who. People deserve to know how he died. What, so they're just_ hiding _it?!"

Neither of them said anything. They didn't have to. They were giving me that look again. The look that I'd become far too familiar with in the last week of the school term. The look that made me feel like a science project.

I hated that look. It made me wish every single time that I'd chosen to stay quiet.

Standing, I left the room, climbing the stairs two at a time and slamming my bedroom door behind me.

My mind was racing at a mile a minute. What they're doing is so wrong, I can't even bring myself to comprehend it properly. What Dumbledore said at the end of the school year was right; not acknowledging how he died was an insult to his memory.

Needing to get my mind off of it somehow, I wandered over to my trunk, which I hadn't unpacked since getting home yet. I spent the next ten minutes meticulously folding and unfolding every piece of clothing that I came across, arranging them on my bed. That was when I came across the photo album that George had helped me put together with the photos he'd gotten developed for my birthday.

A knock came at my door just as I sat down against my pillows on my bed, curling my legs underneath me.

"Bree, it's me," Toby's voice floated through. "Look, can I come in?"

There was a moment of silence when I didn't respond. So he continued. "I just... I want you to know that it's okay to not be okay. It's actually completely understandable to not be."

He paused for a moment, and I heard him shuffle his feet nervously. "Breezy, can you let me in please?"

"I'm fine, Toby. I'm actually just getting ready to have a shower," I lied, not making any move to unlock the bedroom door. "I'll talk to you later."

Toby didn't respond for a moment, before I heard him sigh. "I'm here, Bree. You know that if you need anything."

I heard his footsteps fade as he walked down the hall. A second later he paused and I heard his footsteps return to the door. "Uh, also, how long until that pies ready? You know I love me some apple pie, Breezy."

Shaking my head, I called back "About ten minutes or so," and heard him mumble a thanks before he walked away from my door again.

I had a hunch now as to why Dad dropped the subject of Cedric so easily on the first day I was back home. He knew that Toby was the best person in the world at comforting me and also had a better chance of getting me to talk. But that wasn't necessarily true right now. To be perfectly honest, the only person I was at all comfortable in my grief to be around was George. But every time Cedric comes to mind now, I just feel kind of lonely.

I flipped open the photo album and a smile formed as soon as I saw the first photo of George and I at the Yule Ball, mid dance step. I thumbed through it slowly as I took in all of the photographs. Right at the very back was a photo of Cedric and I right at the beginning of the Yule Ball; I'd just met Cho Chang for the first time. His head was thrown back in laughter. Immediately I slammed the book shut and dropped it back onto my bed.

Running my hands through my already disheveled hair I scrunched my eyes closed and willed myself not to cry anymore. I don't know what's wrong with me; I can't stop doing this to myself.

I'm a fucking mess. Cedric is almost constantly on my mind, and when he's not, I'm worrying about You-Know-Who. What the hell am I meant to do with myself?

* * *

><p>Toby's prediction was proved right not even a whole week later. I'd taken to reading the Daily Prophet again, if only to keep up to date with the lies we were being fed. I unfolded the paper to see a half page photograph of Harry on the front cover. Above it read 'THE BOY WHO LIES?' in bolded letters.<p>

I recognized the photograph. It was taken after the tournament was over; he was still wearing his champion uniform that he'd taken to the maze in. It was only a few hours after he'd arrived back at the school, clutching Cedric's body and screaming. It looked like they'd gotten a photo of him just as he was being ushered into the hospital wing. He was not smiling; in fact, he looked like he'd just stopped crying. And his eyes…

How could anybody believe that a boy with eyes that haunted could be lying?

I didn't read the article. Instead, I turned on my heel and stomped into the kitchen where the rest of my family were gathered, throwing the paper down in front of my Father as he was eating pancakes. He lowered the fork that was at his mouth and stared down at the article, his eyebrows furrowed in thought, before he looked up at me.

"We have a right to know what's going on," I said immediately. It's been three weeks since I've been home, and a week since Toby had last told me anything. I'd waited long enough.

"Bree," he said gently, and I knew instinctively that he was about to argue with me. I'll admit I felt somewhat like a pushy brat being so demanding with my Dad like this, but it's not right that Sam and I are completely in the dark about what's happening. This isn't a common family argument- staying ignorant of what's happening is driving me insane. I felt constantly uneasy, like I was just waiting for something bad to happen, and I honestly don't think I can live like that any longer.

"This affects us," I said forcefully. "This affects _all _of us; Harry Potter is one of Sam's best friends… Cedric was my friend. I know what went on the last time that You-Know-Who was in power. None of us are safe, Dad! We deserve to know what's happening!"

"Avoiding the issue whenever we mention it isn't benefitting us," Sam said carefully from behind me. "Please… just be honest with us."

Dad opened and closed his mouth, glancing between the two of us for a long moment, before he finally pursed his lips together and nodded.

"You're right," he said, sounding resigned. "You're completely right. It's not safe leaving you unprotected like this."

I let out a relieved sigh as Dad glanced at Mom, who nodded to show her acceptance of his decision, before he turned back to us.

"Finish your breakfast," he said simply.

"Okay-" I started, before actually realizing what he'd said. "Wait- what?"

"Finish your breakfast," he repeated, picking his knife and fork back up off of his plate and cutting into his pancakes.

I glanced over at Sam, my eyes wide in surprise and confusion. "Did that conversation just happen in my head…?" I asked slowly.

"No," Dad said as though it were obvious, "but we can talk later. It's pancake time!"

I flopped my head down on the desk. The room was completely silent for a moment, before Toby broke it. "You are one weird old man, Pops."

* * *

><p>Five hours later, pancake time was over and our sense of urgency had returned. Sam and I had packed a suitcase at Dad's request, containing only the basics (so of course mine was a lot larger than Sam's and bulging quite a bit more), as he'd said we'd be returning back here before the start of the next school term. We'd all gathered in the living room now, and Sam was practically bouncing up and down in his seat with his eagerness for information.<p>

I wasn't much better.

"You two must be ecstatic right now," Toby said cheerily, chewing on some kind of chocolate bar as he lounged on the couch, completely relaxed.

"Pretty ecstatic, yeah," I answered, but then shrugged. "However, this whole plan seems a little bit too drawn out for my liking."

Mum scoffed from where she leaning against the wall next to the fireplace. "Tell me about it," she muttered, just as Dad walked into the room.

Clapping his hands together, he looked around at us all. "Okay, Montero's, we ready to go?!"

"Dunno," Toby answered lazily. "Shouldn't you know what we're doing, head Montero?"

"Watch it kiddo, if I wanted unnecessary sass I'd ask your sister," Dad replied cheerily, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"Are you going to tell us anything before shipping us off to who knows where?!" Sam demanded.

"Honestly? I can't tell you anything until we're already there. So let's get going!"

"Oh for Merlin's sake… Mom, come on," I turned, begging the more reasonable member of our family. "You're all being purposefully vague and it's ridiculous!"

She frowned at me sympathetically. "I can understand how frustrating this must be for you, but you're just going to have to trust us."

I crossed my arms and huffed angrily. If I'm going to be treated like a child, I may as well act like one too.

"On your feet, Bree," Toby muttered, pulling me up off of the couch when I took his hand. "Now hold on tight, sis."

Before I realized what was happening, Toby had spun slightly, and suddenly I was everywhere and yet nowhere all at once. I felt as though my entire body was being squeezed too tightly, and recognizing apparition, I clutched tighter to Toby's hand to avoid ending up in Alaska or something (which funnily enough has happened to my older brother before).

Seconds later my feet slammed into the ground and I stumbled away from Toby, my knees hitting the ground hard as I fell. "A LITTLE WARNING NEXT TIME, TOBY!" I yelled, frustrated.

A snigger was my only response, before two more resounding CRACK!'s and my parents and younger brothers feet ended up in front of me.

"What are you doing down there, Bree?" Dad asked, sounding concerned before I pushed myself to my feet and waved him off.

A glance around told me that we were in a dark alleyway between two buildings, and I'd been leaning on the ground next to a large dumpster. "Lovely spot," I called sarcastically as Dad began walking towards the exit of the alley.

Following him led me to a typical London square. There was a reasonable sized park right before me, and surrounding it was rows of gloomy looking houses. There was not another soul anywhere to be seen. I was about to reiterate my point when I noticed that my family had begun walking briskly down the street.

"_Oh_," I huffed, hurrying to catch up with them, grabbing my suitcase, which Mom had left beside me, and dragging it behind me.

"Where are we?" Sam asked as I caught up.

"London," Dad called jokingly over his shoulder, and I rolled my eyes. A moment later we came to a stop before a row of houses that looked the exact same as all the others. A glance around told me that we were in front of numbers eleven and thirteen, but I didn't have time to question it when Dad stepped in front of Sam and I, suddenly looking very serious.

He held a scrap of paper, handing it to me as he said "Read this quickly, and memorize it."

I glanced down at the scrap of paper at the same time Sam did. On it, in narrow, slanted handwriting, it read:

_The Headquarters to the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._

The silence that followed was tense and heavy with questions.

Predictably, I was the one who broke it.

"The fuck is an Order of a-"

Suddenly, Toby clamped his hands over my mouth. "SHHHHHH!"

I let out a quiet squeal of protest as I stumbled backwards. Sam grabbed my hand to steady me as I managed to shove Toby's hands off of my face, shooting a well aimed kick at his legs. "What was that for?!"

"Wait until we're inside!" he hissed, and I just stared at him.

"Inside where, exactly?" I snapped back at him.

"Bree," Mom said quietly, and I turned to look at her. "Think about what you just read."

So I did. I stared at number thirteen and number eleven, and right before my eyes, a battered door emerged from between them, followed slowly by grey walls and grimy windows. My jaw dropped as I watched the houses on either side be pushed outwards from the force of number 12, until a whole new house was in front of me.

"Oh," Sam said breathlessly. "Inside _there_."

Dad tapped me on my lower back and begun walking forwards. "Come on. Quickly now."

I glanced around worriedly, but nothing had changed. It seemed no muggles had noticed the change.

Following the rest of the family up the worn stone steps of the house, we came to a stop at a black door. The paint was scratching off and the doorknocker was in the shape of a serpent- a common feature on the homes of Slytherin house families, I'd come to know. This obviously confused me for a moment, but I didn't have much time to linger on the fact.

Dad tapped his wand to the door and it creaked open slowly. "Alright, step inside, but don't go too far in. Keep quiet and don't touch anything."

I stepped over the threshold and into almost total darkness. I could only barely make out the walls on either side of me that told me I was in a narrow hallway. It smelt damp and dusty… it had the feeling of being derelict and abandoned.

Somebody suddenly elbowed me in the back and I stumbled forwards, just as Sam cried "Ouch, Toby! That was my foot!"

"Don't linger in the doorway then-" Toby snapped back, before Dad shushed him.

"Honestly, you're all acting like children today, will you stop it?!" Mom snapped sternly, and simultaneously all three of us muttered a "Sorry, Mom."

The door shut behind us and we were plunged into near total darkness, and I bit my tongue to avoid making a comment. Suddenly, Dad flipped a light switch and the narrow hallway was lit dimly by old fashioned oil lamps along the walls. I winced slightly at the sudden light, and when my vision cleared I observed my surroundings.

The light barely illuminated the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet along the gloomy hallway. Age blackened portraits hung on the walls; all were empty, their occupants long gone. A chandelier at the end of the hall caught my eye; it, too, was shaped like a serpent.

"This feels like a horror movie," Sam whispered into my ear, and I had to agree.

"Okay," Dad said, pushing between us so he could stand in front of us, stopping us from walking any further into the house. He didn't have to try very hard; it was creepy as hell in here. "Now look guys, I'll tell you only so much as I can right now. You're going to have to make do with that."

Sam and I nodded eagerly, waiting for any bit of information that we could get.

"This is the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Dad begun, still speaking quietly. "It's a secret society. Albus Dumbledore, your headmaster, founded it the first time You-Know-Who came to power. Most members were in it during the last Wizarding War, too."

"But what is it?" I asked quickly, unable to stop myself.

"I can't tell you exactly what we're doing; most of it is heavily classified information. We're finding our own ways of stopping You-Know-Who, or at least slowing him down as much as possible."

"Slowing him down? From what?" I asked, and Dad shook his head.

"I can't tell you that one, Bree."

"Okay… slowing him down how?"

"I can't tell you that one either."

It took every single ounce of my self control to stop from yelling at him.

"How did you two get involved?" Sam asked quietly.

"Originally, I got involved through Arthur Weasley. From there, your mother joined, too."

"Oh, Mr. Weasley's in the Order?" I asked curiously. "Who else is?"

"Don't worry about that right now, Bree. You'll begin to meet the members; they drift through here regularly."

Okay, so that dodge of information left us with pretty much nothing… again. Merlin, this is ridiculous.

"Okay, so where exactly is this?" I asked.

"It's our safe house. It's essentially headquarters," Mom answered this time. "It's the only place we're completely safe from Death Eaters- nobody we don't know about can get in here."

"It's why we couldn't say anything outside. It's impossible to know who might be watching," Dad added, and I tried not to shiver at the negative connotations that brought.

"And we're staying here?" I asked dubiously, staring around at the dinghy house one again. "How fantastic."

"There are other people staying here, too. I think you'll enjoy yourself, to be honest, Bree," Mom sounded smug, like she knew something I didn't (which was obvious considering my parents know a whole fucking lot but deem it fit to keep from us).

"I feel like I'm forgetting to tell you something important…" Dad muttered to himself, and I didn't have any time to comment on it because at that moment I heard muffled footsteps rushing towards us.

A moment later, two figures appeared at the end of the hall, their bright red hair reflecting the dim light brilliantly. A sense of giddiness overtook me as I let out a surprised laugh.

"Georgie!" I cried gleefully, running forwards and launching myself into his arms, laughing ecstatically. He wrapped his own arms around my waist, hugging me to him tightly before placing me back on my feet. I immediately launched myself at Fred, wrapped my arms around his waist in a tight hug, before pulling back and just staring up at them both.

"Merlin," I said, "Have you two actually gotten taller?!"

Fred rolled his eyes. "Well, that and the fact that I'm pretty sure you shrink every time I see you," he said simply, and I punched him jokingly.

"This is excellent," I giggled, just as Ron, Ginny, and Hermione appeared around the corner, Mr and Mrs Weasley close behind them. I ruffled Ron's hair as Sam rushed over to greet his friends, and soon enough Mrs Weasley pulled me into a tight hug, which I returned enthusiastically.

"Oh, it's so good to see you, Bree, dear," Mrs Weasley said, smiling kindly at me, as Dad stepped forwards to stand next to Arthur.

"You too, Mrs Weasley!" I returned with complete sincerity. "Are you all staying here as well?"

Mrs Weasley nodded. "Yes, us and a few other Order members. It feels like more live here than really do, though; we've always got a fair few people floating around the house."

That was when I took a moment to actually look at Mr and Mrs Weasley. Mrs Weasley was a plump woman, but she definitely looked significantly thinner than the last time I had seen her. Mr Weasley, too, had lost a bit of weight, and looked much paler. Whatever was going on in this Order thing must have been taking its toll on the members.

"Ah, Thomas, I thought I heard your voice!" came a man's voice from the end of the hall.

"Remus!" Dad called cheerfully, stepping forwards, as I looked up at the man who had spoken. He was very gaunt looking, with dark shadows under his eyes signaling that he didn't get enough sleep, and slightly sickly pale skin with fading scars across his face. But he looked very kind, with a gentle smile and deep brown eyes.

I turned slightly to see another man had entered the hall behind Remus- and felt my heart freeze as horror overtook me. I would recognize that man anywhere.

Letting out a loud shriek that caused Fred to actually cover his ears, I jumped back and latched onto George. "THAT'S SIRIUS BLACK!" I screamed, as everybody turned to look at me.

"Oh, shit," I heard Dad mutter. Sirius Black (that _is mass murdering Azkaban escapee!_) actually only looked mildly nervous by my yelling.

I continued to scream as I clutched tighter to George and pushed myself as far behind him as I could. "SOMEBODY GRAB HIM! CALL THE MINSITRY! CALL THE AURORS! CALL THE WIZARD COPS!"

George spun around, bringing his hands up to grab my upper arms as he stared down at me in concern. He repeated my name a few times, getting steadily louder as I just continued pulling back and yelling, completely terrified.

Then, in my haze of fear, I noticed that nobody else seemed as frightened as I did. In fact, they all only looked mildly concerned- for me, not for the mass murderer standing behind them.

"THE HELL ARE YOU ALL DOING?!" I yelled, as Toby rushed forwards and nudged George away from me so he could take his place, Mom right beside him.

"Hey, it's okay, Bree! Stop yelling, it's alright! He's good! He's not who you think he is!" he said quickly, trying to calm me as I stopped trying to pull away from him.

"THAT'S SIRIUS BLACK!" I cried, and Toby shook his head quickly.

"Bree, he's okay, please calm down!" Mom begged, looking concerned-again, not because of the mass murderer behind her. "He's innocent!"

This managed to break through the cloud of horror I found myself in. "Wh… what?"

"He's innocent," Toby repeated. "Everything you've read about him isn't true- please, I'll explain everything later, just calm down."

Everything was silent as I tried to absorb this new information. Then, I heard Dad say quietly "Oh, I _knew_ I forgot to mention something…"

I spun around towards him, feeling both furious and mortified. "Really, Dad? _Ya think?!"_

Awkwardly, I looked up and made hesitant eye contact with Sirius Black. He looked mildly nervous, but also kind of amused.

"So like- uh, not a mass murderer, then?" I asked anxiously, and he actually chuckled.

"No, but don't feel bad; I get that all the time," he said, only half joking.

That was when Fred snorted, and I noticed how red his face was from trying to hold back his laughter. George, too, looked like he wanted to laugh, but was holding it back with no small amount of effort.

"Okay so I was the only one not in on this then?!" I snapped, my anger and embarrassment only building, and my parents both had the grace to look ashamed.

"Uh- let's take this to the kitchen," Mrs Weasley said gently, obviously trying to move on from my outburst. "Just be a bit quiet until we get there, okay everyone?"

Nervously, I began to follow them all out of the hall, trying to distract myself from my absolute mortification by observing the house around me. It was similar to the Hall I entered in, with dark, peeling wallpaper, dusty portraits, and the symbol of snakes recurring just about everywhere they could. I eyed off a pair of long, black, moth eaten curtains curiously, and lost in my observations, I didn't notice the (hideous) troll foot umbrella stand in my way, and tripped over it, causing a resounding crash to go through the room.

Suddenly, the curtains I'd been observing flew apart to reveal a life sized portrait of a woman. It was at the same time the most realistic and the most unpleasant painting I'd ever seen in my life. The old woman was drooling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she began to shriek horribly. My hands shot to cover my ears as I stayed laying on the ground, as Sirius, Remus, and Dad dived forwards, pulling at the curtains roughly in an attempt to pull them closed.

_"Filth! Scum! By-products of filth and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, be gone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-"_

"Shut up, you old hag, SHUT UP!" Sirius roared, and she turned her gaze to him.

_"YOU!"_ She howled, her eyes popping in rage at the sight of him. _"Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"_

Sirius began to yell back at her as I covered my ears harder. "WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!" I yelled loudly, and at that moment, with no small amount of effort, the men managed to force the curtains closed, and immediately, the woman's screeches fell silent, and an echoing silence fell.

A hand took my upper arm gently and helped to pull me to my feet, and I looked up to see that it was George. He led me through the open space and passed a grand staircase, probably ensuring that I didn't do anything else wrong. We approached another set of stairs and walked down them, into a large room that upon closer inspection I saw was a kitchen. It was absolutely enormous, with a huge, long wooden table, similar to the house tables at Hogwarts, in the middle of it. Dozens of chairs were squeezed in around it. There were counters for preparing food against the cavernous stone walls and a large fireplace in the middle.

It was pretty much as gloomy as the rooms above.

Unable to hold it back any longer, Fred let out a loud laugh as he turned to look at me. "So, 2/2 so far, Bree. You're doing fabulously."

I saw Toby trying to hide a smirk from where he stood behind Fred, and I tried not to pout like a child when I noticed that every single other person in the room wore the exact same look.

I couldn't help the sigh that escaped me. This quest for answers hadn't exactly turned out so fantastically for me, now that I found myself inside this house of horrors.

"I'll start dinner," Mrs Weasley said, bustling over to the counter, and Mom followed, eager to help out and probably to spend more time with her new friend. "Everybody get comfortable."

Soon, a series of heavy knives were chopping meat and vegetables of their own accord, supervised by my Mom. Mrs Weasley stirred a cauldron dangling over the fire as Dad and Toby began retrieving more food from the pantry and the twins, Ron, and Hermione began taking out plates, goblets, and cutlery.

This left Sam and I alone standing near the table with Sirius and I cleared my throat nervously. He turned to look at me curiously.

"Look, um, I'm really, really sorry about before. I just- I was kind of unprepared and... yeah. I'm sorry I looked like such an idiot and-" I rambled on nervously, until Sirius put his hand on my shoulder and grinned widely. Now that I was really looking at him, I realized how different he looked to the photographs of him I'd seen before. He had thick black, should length hair and a wide grin, with bright, friendly eyes. He looked much healthier than when he'd been in Azkaban, and all in all, Sirius Black was a rather attractive man. I imagined him being quite a heartbreaker during his school days.

"Look, Bree," he started. "Don't worry about it for even a moment, alright? If our roles were reversed, I would have reacted the exact same way."

I nodded, still not at all comfortable with what had happened, and upon noticing this, he continued speaking.

"And I'm not gonna lie... not a lot of very interesting things happen around here. I won't even pretend that wasn't bloody amusing."

I couldn't help the small smile that came to my face as Sam scoffed. "Oh you can definitely count on things getting less boring with her around," Sam told Sirius, and the older man laughed.

He ushered the two of us to the table, pulling out my chair for me before I sat down. What a gentleman.

"So what's the deal? I mean, why does everybody think you're guilty?" I asked Sirius, unable to hold back my curiosity any longer.

Sirius shrugged, and took a moment to consider how best to tell his story. "Do you know much about me?"

I shook my head.

"Well, James Potter was my best friend before he died. There were four of us, actually. Remus, over there, and a man named Peter Pettigrew."

"Peter Pettigrew?" I asked. "Wasn't that the name of the man they said you killed?"

Nodding, Sirius begun his story. The four of them had been best friends during their Hogwarts days- it was only after they had all graduated that things started getting more complicated, brought on by the first reign of You-Know-Who. Peter Pettigrew had betrayed them all, secretly spying on them for You-Know-Who, and eventually delivering the Potter's whereabouts to him. Sirius had been completely heartbroken, and had rushed to confront Pettigrew. He admitted, completely honestly, that if things had gone a little differently, he didn't doubt in his state of mind that he truly would have killed Pettigrew... but things went a little differently. Pettigrew had framed Sirius, cutting off his finger (the only thing that they had found of him when the Ministry went looking) and transformed into a rat, being an unregistered animagus. He blew up the entire square before doing so, and in the process, framed Sirius for mass murder.

I was completely mystified listening to his story. I felt terrible for Sirius. Imagine, rotting away in a cell in the most horrible place on earth, Azkaban, all the time knowing that the man responsible for his best friends death and his predicament was free. I voiced this, and Sirius shrugged. "I think that was what kept me going, really. I mean... I knew I was innocent. The dementors could take many things from me, but they couldn't take that."

He continued his story, telling me of what happened to Peter after that. He stayed in rat form for thirteen years, becoming a much loved family pet- of the Weasley family.

"You've got to be joking!" I cried, turning to face Ron, who was stirring the pot over the fire. "That's so gross! So your pet was actually a middle aged man the whole time?!"

Ron looked paler. "We don't talk about that," he said simply, and I shuddered, understanding why.

"I couldn't believe it either. Pettigrew had killed James and Lily, and now he'd slept in the same room as their son for three whole years? He could have hurt him at any time. I knew I had to do something about it- so I escaped."

He stated it all very simply, but I knew that escaping from Azkaban wasn't exactly a common occurrence. It would have been next to impossible. However, I didn't want to push for too much information, because he was starting to sound like his emotions were becoming a bit much, so I let him continue without interruption.

He told me that he escaped and immediately made for Hogwarts, his only intent to protect Harry, who he soon revealed was actually his godson. Dementors were released from the prison to look for him around the same time that his old friend Remus Lupin was placed as a teacher at the school.

During the time we'd been speaking, other people had come to join us, including the twins, Ron, Hermione, and Lupin, who all placed their own input to the story as Sirius told of the events that happened two years ago, eventually leading up to Harry coming face to face with the man who he'd thought had killed his parents.

"Well I mean, on the bright side, I wasn't the first person to react that way to meeting you," I said reasonably. "I wasn't even the most violent."

Sirius threw his head back and laughed, a grin lingering on his face. "You know, I think I'm going to quite enjoy having you around, little miss Montero."

"Ditto, old man Black," I replied, winking at him, and he simply laughed again. I steered the conversation back to his story again. "So you've been on the run since then?"

"Yeah; after Pettigrew escaped, I knew it was unlikely that my name would be cleared anytime soon. I stayed close to Hogwarts last year, what with Harry being involved in the Triwizard Tournament and all. After the events of the third task, I offered this house to Dumbledore. I knew it would be safe from death eaters- my parents were very paranoid. A lot of effort went into protecting this place."

At this point, Mrs. Weasley announced that dinner was ready. Once we'd all gotten food and sat back down at the table, I began to speak again. "So what's the deal with the screeching painting, then?" I directed at Sirius.

"It was my mother, actually," Sirius said. "We've been trying to get her down for a month but we think she put some kind of permanent sticking charm on the back of the canvas."

"Oh," I said in surprise, recovering quickly. "Well she seems... er... lovely?"

Sirius snorted into his wine. "Oh, don't worry, Bree, she was as much of an old bat as she seemed, there's no suger coating it."

I shrugged. Fair enough.

Everyone had begun their own conversations by now, and I overheard Mr Weasley mention that Bill would be arriving at Headquarters by the end of the week.

"Forget the Order of the Phoenix, it's more like Weasley Headquarters here," I joked. "Where's Percy, then? I haven't seen him since Christmas time.

At once, the room fell silent. Mr Weasley dropped the cup he'd been drinking out of, smashing it to pieces once it hit the ground. At the same time, Mrs Weasley burst into tears.

I could only watch in absolute horror as, simultaneously, everyone began speaking at once. "This is a fantastic meal, Molly!" Lupin said loudly. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah, beautiful," Fred said quickly. "It's beautiful. _You're_ beautiful. You're great, Mum!"

Arthur's hands were clenched tightly as he turned and began whispering to his wife in an attempt to calm her down. I just continued watching in absolute horror, confusion flooding me as to what I'd said to elicit such a bad response from the Weasley's. From across the table, George mouthed 'I'll tell you later' and I nodded, my mouth gaping open as I sat, dumbstruck.

Do I apologize? What did I even say?! THE FUCK DO I DO?!

The room soon fell into an extremely awkward silence again once Mrs Weasley managed to stop her flow of tears, which Sam eventually broke. "So uh, what do you guys do here all day?"

"We clean," Ron said, sounding unexcited even at the thought of it.

Mrs Weasley nodded, looking like she was trying very hard to distract herself from her previous breakdown. "Yes, this place has been uninhabited for ten years, since Sirius's mother died. So our job is to try to make this place fit for human habitation. I'll tell you, we've found some really nasty stuff in this house so far, and we've only explored a small minority of it!"

Sam looked horrified at the thought of staying in a place where dangerous things were lurking. Dad looked horrified at the thought of cleaning.

The room fell into a bit of an awkward silence again, the thought of the Weasley's breakdown before still heavy on our minds. To be honest I'd done enough wrong since I arrived here and was kind of unwilling to do anything and keep making mistakes.

"Oh would you look at the time," Mom said airily, glancing down at her watch. Mrs Weasley followed her lead and glanced up at the clock on the wall. It read 7:38. "Yes, shouldn't we all be getting ready for bed now?"

Really, Mom? This is your brilliant plan to diffuse tension?

Sirius seemed bored enough of dinner by this point so he stood. "Quite right... Bree, Sam- why don't you follow me? I'll show you where you'll be staying."

The two of us stood as Mom bustled over to the kitchen counter, turning on the warm water to fill up the kitchen sink and handing out orders for everybody to help clean up. Just before I left the kitchen, Mrs Weasley hurried over and pulled Sam and I into a big bear hug.

"I'm sorry about before, Bree, I overreacted. I want you both to know we're all so glad to have you here with us," she said gently, and I couldn't help but smile up at her before Sirius ushered the two of us out of the kitchen.

"Come on," he said quickly as he led us up the stairs, "hurry up before she starts trying to make me bloody clean anything else," he added, only half joking.

We walked in silence past the portrait of Sirius's mother, unwilling to repeat what happened earlier, and only felt safe to speak once we were on the second floor of the house- and still climbing the stairs even higher.

"The house isn't as complicated as it seems," Sirius said, pointing out the doorways as we passed to tell us who was staying where and where we really shouldn't enter if we valued our lives. Mr and Mrs Weasley and my parents would be staying in the rooms on the second floor. My room was on the third floor.

"I hope you don't mind, Bree, but you'll be staying with Ginny and Hermione," Sirius said, turning to look at me. "It probably won't be a permanent thing but we haven't cleared out enough of the bedrooms yet for all of the people who are coming to stay."

I grinned up at him to let him know if was fine by me. "It's cool, Sirius; Ginny and Hermione are a lot of fun!"

He nodded. "Excellent. Fred and George are staying in the room just across from you. Toby will be upstairs with Bill when he arrives and Sam, you'll be staying with Ron upstairs, too."

As he bid me a goodnight, I smiled widely at him, still sort of embarrassed about my earlier screaming. I'm not gonna lie, I'm quite glad he's not actually a mass murderer. He's far too much fun to be around to be afraid of.

Sam waved goodbye to me as I pushed the door of my room open. It was a rather gloomy room, with high ceilings and a hanging chandelier above me. The same peeling wallpaper covered the walls, but it was a spacious room, easily fitting in three beds, with a bookcase lining one of the walls. I noticed my suitcase was pushed against the far wall next to Ginny's and Hermione's. Two of the three beds had clothes folded on them, but the third was empty, so I could only assume that it was mine.

So I flopped down on the bed closest to the doorway, clasping my hands in my lap, and waited impatiently for the twins to arrive in my room and tell me everything that everyone else had been hiding from me.

* * *

><p><strong>This one took so long and I am so so sorry! I'm approaching the last three months before graduation and so school has been impossibly busy. I've been so excited to introduce Sirius Black for a while because I adore him as a character. More about the Order of the Phoenix soon enough! <strong>


	16. Life at Grimmauld Place

It only took about ten minutes for the twins to join me. I could hear them muttering to each other as they climbed the stairs and stopped in front of the door. Hearing them only served to increase my excitement at seeing them again, and before I knew what I was doing, I'd thrown the door open and pulled them both into a large bear hug.

George let out a noise of surprise as Fred began to laugh, pulling me tighter to him. "Oh, Breezy, we've missed you, too!" he cried cheerily.

I pulled back to look at them. It had only been a month since I'd seen them, but Merlin, I missed these boys more than I could say. They looked almost thinner than the last time I had seen them, just as their parents did. I wondered why the Weasley family was so stressed all of a sudden.

Suddenly, Fred pulled away and began to hysterically laugh, actually doubling over and clutching his stomach. "You- Sirius- screaming-" he managed to get out amongst his laughter, and I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"Laugh it up all you want, buddy," I snapped, and George soon joined in his brothers laughing.

A moment later, they both straightened up, Fred wiping a tear away, and still giggling slightly. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at them. "You done?"

"I had to hold that back all throughout dinner," Fred said, shaking his head. "That was fucking fantastic. I knew you'd cause havoc as soon as you got here,"

"Yes, well, _moving on_," I said forcefully, pushing them both towards their room. "I want to talk to the both of you, please! Wait- why are you two the first up here? I thought Toby would have found a way to excuse himself from cleaning a while ago."

George rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I mean, we were only trying to help-" he begun.

"-We've been using magic a lot now that we legally can-" Fred continued.

"-But, ya know, we're still new to it, so we really shouldn't be blamed-"

"-I mean, Ginny was in the way of the knives-"

"-They missed her but apparently _close calls_ are frowned upon in this house-"

"-So… here we are!" Fred finished with a flourish of his hands.

I rolled my eyes. Okay, so that wasn't surprising, I suppose. The twins flopped down onto one of the two beds in the room, staring up at me as I stared right back in expectation.

"So what do you already know?" Fred asked curiously, and I let out an exasperated sigh as I began pacing, unable to stand still.

"Nothing! I know nothing! Ever since the beginning of the holidays my questions have been deflected, and even now that I'm here I've been given the smallest amount of information possible! It's infuriating, let me tell you,"

"Yeah, we know that feeling," George said, shrugging.

"But you must know something! You've been staying in their headquarters, you must have picked up some information!"

The twins frowned identically. "It's pretty infuriating around here, too. It's all being kept pretty heavily under wraps, to be honest. Despite the fact that we're _of age and clearly able to make our own decisions_," Fred emphasized, sounding more than a little bit irritated, "we're prohibited from entering any of the Order meetings."

"Every time we ask we're told that it's 'order business' and that we're 'too young to know anything'," George snapped in annoyance. "Our parents are still making the decisions for us."

"Well, okay," I said slowly, taking in this information, "But if I know anything about you two at all it's that those things wouldn't stop you."

George shot me a mischievous grin, contrasting with his earlier frown. "Right you are, Breezy."

"It's a secret society that Dumbledore founded last time You-Know-Who was in power," Fred told me. "We've met about twenty of the members so far, but we think there are a lot more than that. I doubt you'd know any of them, but it hardly matters; you'll meet them all soon enough. Most of them drop by pretty regularly."

I nodded, walking and taking a seat next to them on the bed. "What are they all doing?"

"Some of the Order are following known Death Eaters. They keep tabs on them," Fred said.

"Others are working on recruiting more people into the Order- like what our Dad did with your parents," George told me.

"And some of them are standing guard over something- they're always talking about guard duty…"

I nodded, considering what they'd told me. "And what's… what's You-Know-Who doing?"

"We're not sure about that one. I mean, we can only assume at this point because they haven't talked about it when we've been listening," George said. "It's probably a fair bet to say that he'd want to build up his followers again."

"What we can't work out is why he's staying so quiet. There's not been any unusual deaths or anything that signaled his rise to power last time," Fred added.

We fell into silence for a moment whilst I considered what I'd been told.

"Things are fucked up, Bree," George said eventually. "I don't think there's any better way of saying it. Things are confusing and nobody trusts anybody."

"Maybe that's why he's keeping silent," I said thoughtfully. "He's really only serving to build our fear as we wait for something to happen."

"Yeah," Fred said, "and Fudge is practically serving him the opportunity on a silver platter. He's being stupid and putting everyone in danger with his naivety."

I only nodded my agreement silently. What Fred said is completely true. Fudge isn't a good leader if his solution to a problem this large is simply 'ignore it until it goes away.'

"Have you seen Harry?" I asked curiously. "Is he alright?"

George shook his head. "I'm a bit worried about Harry, actually. He'd stuck at his Aunt and Uncle's place and they aren't exactly guardian of the year award winners when it comes to him."

"Not only that, but Dumbledore was here earlier in the holidays. He told all of us that we need to keep quiet in our letters to Harry. He made us swear not to tell him anything that was happening." Fred said.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What? Why would he ask you to do that?!"

"Buggered if I know," Fred shrugged. "Dad said it could be because the letters might be intercepted, but it seems different. Dumbledore just genuinely seemed like he didn't want Harry to know anything."

"Which is a bit weird, considering Harry's probably the most key player in what's happening, but Dumbledore's never been wrong before," George said.

That was true, at the very least. Dumbledore wouldn't do anything if he didn't have a very good reason for doing it, and that's a simple fact.

Something hit me then. "Wait, how _do_ you know all this information if you've been kept out of the meetings?!" I demanded suspiciously.

Fred flashed a grin at me. "Glad you asked, Breezy," he said, as George pulled something out of his pocket and unraveled it in his palm. It looked like an ear on a long piece of skin colored string.

"Extendable ears," George answered my unspoken question. "A new product we've created. Let me tell you, they're might useful, we've been getting quite a good bit of use out of these things."

"Oh, boys, this is _fantastic_! What else have you been working on?!" I asked, suddenly very excited. "Have you been using the money from the Tournament?"

"Slow down, blondie," Fred said, "A businessman never gives away his secrets."

"But the answer is yes," George added. "It's been a huge help. We've got some really good stuff at the moment; we're going to start selling it at Hogwarts."

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Fred quoted, grinning proudly. "It's our new name. Great, huh?"

I laughed delightedly. "Oh my goodness, this is really starting to take off! I'm so excited for you guys!"

"Mum is still firmly against the whole idea; she doesn't think it's a suitable profession for two of her sons," Fred told me.

"I mean I can understand where she's coming from but… I've never been able to imagine us doing anything else, ya know?" George asked.

I nodded quickly. "I understand exactly where you guys are coming from. But to be honest, I just think she needs some time. I think this is what you guys were meant to do, and you shouldn't let anything stop you from achieving your dream."

They both looked a fair bit happier after I finished speaking. So I continued to ruin the happy moment.

"I mean, for Merlin's sakes, one of her sons works with bloody dragons for a living, that's like the coolest and least safe job on the planet," I said, shrugging. "If he can work with fire breathers you two can work with kids eager to prank Snape at school."

George laughed. "Well, that's true. The rest of us are the good ones, though. Bill's even moving back into the country to get a desk job at Gringott's."

"It's so he can work for the Order, but still, it's pleased Mum well enough."

Talking about the Weasley family brought another thought to mind. "And, er… what exactly happened to Percy?"

Suddenly, the boys both looked murderous. They silently exchanged loaded glances before George answered.

"He and Dad had a row… a big one," he told me. "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts."

"It was the first week after term ended," Fred continued, "We were just about to come stay here when Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted."

I found this news a bit surprising. Percy was highly ambitious, sure, but the last I'd heard, he was in quite a bit of trouble with the Ministry for failing to notice that his boss was being controlled by You-Know-Who.

"Which of course we were all pretty surprised about of the trouble he got into over the Crouch thing; there was an inquiry and everything." George said. "They said that Percy should have realized he was off his rocker, which they assumed he was when they brushed off the 'controlled by You-Know-Who' theory, and informed a superior, but Percy was too ambitious; he wasn't about to question someone giving him so much power."

"So why did they promote him?" I asked in confusion.

"Well, see, that's what we were wondering. He came home really pleased with himself- well even more pleased than usual- and told Dad he'd been offered a place in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts: Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think."

"Only Dad wasn't," Fred said grimly.

"Why not?" I asked. "That is a pretty impressive job."

"Well, apparently Fudge has been storming around the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore." George said. "Dumbledore's name is mud at the ministry these days, see…"

"…They all think he's just stirring up trouble saying You-Know-Who's back." Fred continued.

"Dad said Fudge has made it clear than anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks…"

"…Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore and he's always thought Dad was a bit of a weirdo because of his muggle obsession."

"But… what's that got to do with Percy?" I asked, still completely confused.

"We're coming to that," Fred waved me off. "Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family- and Dumbledore."

"Percy went completely berserk. He said- well, he said loads of terrible stuff," George said, looking uncomfortable. "He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that that's why we've always been- you know, not had a lot of money, I mean-"

"_What_?!" I cried. "He actually said that?!"

George nodded. "It only got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, and that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he- Percy- knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London."

"Mums been in a right state," Fred said grimly. "You know- crying and stuff, like she did before. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I don't know what he does if he sees dad at work- ignores him, I suppose."

I was silent for a moment, struggling to absorb this information. "But… but Percy isn't stupid! I understand that he's ambitious but surely that can't blind him that much."

Fred shrugged. "Percy said that there just wasn't enough proof. I mean, Harry's word is all we've got at the moment and it makes sense that some people might think it isn't good enough."

We lapsed into silence after that, which I eventually broke.

"You guys are right. Things _are _fucked up."

* * *

><p>Over the next week, I came to see number 12 Grimmauld Place as a sort of makeshift home. Sam and I joined our friends and were kept out of the Order meetings, our Mother telling us simply 'you're too young'. This didn't actually matter too much; we kept track of what was going on through the twins Extendable Ears. They were probably the most useful item they'd ever created- I had no doubt they'd sell like mad once they started marketing them.<p>

Mostly, we were left to find alternative means of keeping ourselves busy, which usually included cleaning the house. The Black family (Sirius not counted of course) were a family of strong You-Know-Who supporters and collectors of items full of dark magic. When Sirius's mother had died ten years ago, the house had been left abandoned, and in this time it had festered a variety of dark creatures and dangerous objects just waiting to be uncovered. Mrs Weasley said our job was to clean the house, but it really felt more like we were waging a war with it- and this house was a lot more dangerous of an opponent than we'd been expecting.

Another factor of the house was that it hadn't been completely void of life for ten years like I'd originally assumed. The Black family house elf had stuck around- his name was Kreacher, and he was, as Ron phrased it, 'completely off his rocker.'

My first impression of Kreacher was, to say the least, appalling. Hermione and Ginny had left the house early to take a trip to the shops, so I was alone in our bedroom. I awoke at 7:30am to a sort of rustling noise, which steadily grew louder until I opened my eyes to see what was going on. What I found was Kreacher's face at eye level with mine, peering at me as he rummaged through my belongings. I shot up in bed, screaming loudly, until Sirius burst in, and physically threw the house elf from the room.

I mean, I try to be as nice as possible, but Kreacher was a vindictive little thing. He'd adopted the Black family mentality of hating 'mudblood's and blood traitors,' and his goal in life was to have his head chopped off and mounted on the wall of the study where the rest of the Black family house elves ended up. Kreacher had become quite accustomed to living in this house all on his own, and didn't appreciate us coming in here and creating havoc. During his years alone, he'd developed a bad habit of thinking out loud- and his thoughts were usually abusive in some way or form. As I've already said, this house was fighting us back in our war against it… and Kreacher was doing everything he possibly could to aid it.

We started our cleaning in the dining room upstairs from the kitchen, which took us nearly two whole days to clean out. It was the worst possible 'welcome to Grimmauld place' that Sam and I could have imagined- the first thing Mrs Weasley told me to do was to open up the dresser doors, which led to dozens of black spiders as large as saucers scurrying out as soon as the doors were open. I let out a high pitched squeal so loud that from the hall, Mrs Black's portrait began to yell, and I fled the room as quickly as possible, Ron right on my tail. We returned an hour later with tea to use as an excuse for our hasty exit, by which time the spiders were all taken care of. After that, I made sure not to be the one to open any new areas just in case.

We found a large amount of fine china, which all bore the Black family crest, in the dining room. Sirius threw it all unceremoniously into a sack, soon followed by a set of old photographs in tarnished silver frames, all of whose occupants screamed shrilly as the glass covering them smashed.

Kreacher popped up at random moments in time to try and take things from the rubbish sacks. His muttering became more and more offensive every time I spotted him, but everyone mostly ignored him because we weren't really too sure of his mental stability. Sirius hated him with a passion; Hermione told me one night that she thought it was because Kreacher reminded Sirius of the life that he had hated so much here. I thought that was quite sad.

As the twins had said, Grimmauld place was like a half-way house; the doorbell rang several times a day (which was the cue for Mrs Black to start screaming), and I saw a wide variety of people, both familiar and unfamiliar.

McGonagall, Snape, and Dumbledore all made appearances fairly regularly for the Order meetings, and I met the real Mad-Eye Moody. You know, not the imposter- the one who had been locked in a trunk for nine months. This guy was even more paranoid than the imposter, and if possible, prone to even more violently loud outbursts.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was a dark skinned man with an exceptionally deep voice. He was a pretty serious man the majority of the time, which led to not many people picking up on the sarcastic comments he continually made, leaving me endlessly entertained. I'd learned that he was an Auror, and was about as close to the Minister for Magic as we got.

Remus Lupin spent a lot of time at Grimmauld Place. I'd learned that he taught at Hogwarts for a while (and was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that school had seen in a while) and was Sirius's best friend. It was kind of adorable- they'd been great friends during their school days and lost contact after the whole Azkaban incident, predictably. Now, they spent most of their time together, gossiping like teenagers again. Remus was one of the most kindhearted people I'd ever encountered, and we got along fantastically. Remus was also a werewolf, and he despised himself for it.

Mundungus Fletcher was a shorter man with very questionable morals. He was amusing the majority of the time and popped up in Grimmauld Place very commonly. Now, I like to give everybody a chance, but there is something genuinely untrustworthy about Mundungus. He mostly made his money on the black market, and to be perfectly honest, he makes me feel kind of uneasy.

And then… there was Nymphadora Tonks. She's absolutely brilliant; lovely, kindhearted, open, and a right laugh. She's a metamorphagus, and entertained us for hours on end with her constantly changing appearance. However, Tonks had a clumsy streak that was even worse than mine (prompting Fred to say in surprise 'I didn't think that was possible'). The first time I met her she fell over the carpet and broke her arm… she waved my concern off and airily said it "happens all the time." I don't know how to feel about that knowledge.

So, all in all, living at Grimmauld Place wasn't terrible. I didn't see Toby as much as I would have liked- he had a full time job at St Mungoes and often went to 'top secret places' with other Order members on 'top secret business' (those are his exact words, the prat). I saw Mom and Dad more than Toby but still less than Mrs Weasley- Dad was a valuable Order member because he worked at the Ministry, and Mom was just a workaholic. They always made sure to set aside time during the week to spend with Sam and I, which we appreciated more than we let on.

And so we lived like this for a week and a half, eavesdropping in on the Order meetings which, infuriatingly, didn't actually reveal much information. They mostly spoke in code and referenced things we didn't know, but at the very least it allowed us to keep up to date with what You-Know-Who was doing. Funnily enough, what I was hearing wasn't easing my worries any.

"He's not doing _anything_," Toby had said one day as we listened on, sounding surprised even by his own information. "He's staying completely off the grid- no mysterious disappearances, no unexplainable muggle deaths… nothing."

There was a long pause, until Toby continued. "I think this is more worrying than if we were finding the signs we were looking for. We know there's going to be a war, and we have no way of combating him at this point. We have no way of doing anything at this point, really."

At that point, I pulled away, unwilling to listen to anymore. Those words had stayed with me ever since. _'There's going to be a war.'_

Up until that point, I think I'd been managing to fool myself that maybe things would go back to normal. Of course I'd believed Harry wholeheartedly when he said what he'd seen the night of the third task, but there hadn't been anything since then. I could pretend that things weren't going to get worse. Hearing Toby speak of a war so casually tore that hope to pieces.

* * *

><p>Currently, I'd been at Grimmauld Place for two weeks. Today was a Tuesday, and the weather had turned gloomier than usual. In fact, it hadn't stopped raining since last Saturday. I suppose this sort of thing shouldn't surprise me. I still haven't gotten any happier about foul British weather than when I moved to this country almost a year ago. But if I'm good for anything, it's seeing the bright side of a situation, and that's exactly what I plan to do.<p>

Instead of moping around the house like many other occupants were, I took this as an opportunity to further explore the house (a dangerous pastime), and so this particular Wednesday morning found me exploring aimlessly, eventually arriving on the fifth floor- an area that had been left mostly untouched during the cleaning. There were only two doors on this landing, and a glint of something reflecting off of the lamps on the doors caught my attention. Upon closer inspection, I found that they were golden name plates. The first read 'Regulus', which was of no interest to me seeing as I had no idea who that was, but the second read 'Sirius.'

This was Sirius' bedroom. This discovery only served to confuse me, as Sirius was currently staying in a room on the fourth floor. I wondered why he would be staying elsewhere, coming up with the conclusion that this floor must not have been adequately cleaned for him to stay there. However, my curiosity eventually got the better of me (as it always seems to), and I reached down and turned the doorknob, pushing the door open quickly before I could convince myself not to.

Wary of potential hazards (Hermione told me a Persian rug attacked her on her second day here, and since then I've stayed careful), I stuck my head in, glancing around.

The room was spacious and I think once it would have been very luxurious. There was a large bed with a wooden headboard, a tall window obscured by heavy black curtains, and a chandelier that was thickly coated in dust. It was homey; the teenage Sirius had plastered the walls with so many posters and photographs that little of the silver wallpaper was visible. There were several large Gryffindor banners in faded red and gold, surrounded by many posters of muggle motorcycles and several of bikini clad muggle girls, too. I knew they were muggle posters because the photos remained stationary in their frames, the women's faded smiles frozen on the paper. This was in contrast to the poster in the middle of the wall, which was the only magical photograph in the room. It was a large photograph of four Hogwarts students, arms linked as they laughed and grinned at the camera.

Curiously, I crept further into the room, coming to stop in front of the photograph.

I immediately recognized Sirius, and had to admit that had been unreasonably attractive as a teenager. His dark hair fell to his shoulders and his face was relaxed, but it definitely held a tone of arrogance. He looked happier than I'd yet seen him.

Next to Sirius was a man so familiar that it gave me a sudden shock to look at him. I'd never met this man, but his untidy black hair, sticking up at the back and falling in his face to get in the way of his round glasses was more than familiar to me. I realized with a start that I was looking at James Potter- the resemblance to his son was uncanny.

After a moment longer of looking at James, I moved on. It only took me a second to recognize the man standing on the other side of Sirius to be Remus. Even back then he looked a bit shabby, but as I watched he glanced around at his friends and looked back up at the camera in delight. It was obvious how much they all meant to him.

Next to Remus was a man I didn't know, but I could easily assume who he would be. He was more than a head shorter than the others, plump, and had small, watery eyes. There was something distinctly unfavorable about him and I could only assume that this man was Peter Pettigrew.

The four of them couldn't have been older than sixteen at the time that this photo was taken, and they all looked so happy together. It was obvious that Pettigrew was in awe that such a cool group of people had accepted him to be their friend, the glee shining through every single one of his features.

How could he have betrayed them?

Suddenly, a throat cleared from behind me, and I spun around with a frightened gasp, anticipating seeing a Persian rug rearing up and about to attack me, but instead I found myself facing the owner of this bedroom.

"Your older brother told me you had a tendency to wander," he said, as I held my breath, expecting him to be furious with me invading his privacy. "I can assure you there are plenty more interesting things in this house than this old room."

I let out the breath, not hearing the anger in his tone that I had been expecting. "I-I'm sorry," I said quickly, trying to adequately explain myself. "I just- I was bored, and curious-"

He grinned, calming me down significantly. "It's alright, Bree. Curiosity isn't something to be discouraged. In fact, it's probably good you ended up in here… the other rooms probably hold some much nastier things than some old photographs."

At the mention of the photograph, I glanced back at it. "It's just… Harry looks so much like his Father," I said thoughtfully, and Sirius smiled, pushing the door further open so he could walk into the room.

"He does," Sirius said quietly. "He looks just like James… except for the eyes. He has his Mother's eyes."

There was a moment of silence before I spoke again. "It's a nice photo. You all look really happy."

"We were happy. We were practically Gryffindor royalty at that school," he laughed slightly, and I could tell that mentally, he was right back at the time this photo had been taken.

I opened my mouth to speak, but quickly snapped it shut again. One of my biggest flaws is my inability to let things go; once they're in my head, I pursue them, even if it means sometimes bringing something into a conversation that is better left unsaid. I've been trying to work on it.

Unfortunately, Sirius noticed my hesitation, and now he was staring at me, waiting for me to speak. "Uh, it's nothing," I said quietly.

Sirius considered me for a moment. "You should never be afraid to speak your mind, Bree. You're far too intelligent to hide in the shadows."

I smiled slightly at his underhanded compliment, before trying to change the conversation. "Do you have a motorcycle?"

He wasn't buying it. "Once," he said simply, before staring at me again, simply waiting. With a sigh, I spoke what was on my mind, acknowledging that Sirius wasn't going to let it go until I did.

"I just…" I began hesitantly, "I can't stop thinking about Pettigrew. He was your friend- I just can't understand what would make him betray you all."

Sirius seemed to draw back into himself slightly, surprised by my statement. Then, he pursed his lips, as though considering what he could say to answer me.

"Honestly, Bree… Pettigrew was our friend, but looking back on it, it was really only for the popularity he gained from us and the power that came with it. If he found a greater sense of power elsewhere, then I'm not at all surprised that that's where he ended up."

Sirius was staring at the floor, looking torn. I stayed silent, recognizing that he hadn't finished speaking yet.

"The amazing thing about Voldemort" he didn't stop when I cringed at the name "is that he has the ability to get into your head without even having to try. The fear around him is unbelievable- he invades your mind and taints every single one of your thoughts. He does this to civilians, of course, but he also does it to his Death Eaters- they believe in him so wholeheartedly that it becomes dangerous. Once he's in your mind, you'd do unimaginable things. I think that's what makes him so dangerous."

I didn't consciously choose to say what I did next. Toby's speech had been on my mind ever since I had overheard it a few days prior, and before I had realized, my next question had slipped out. "Do you really think that there's going to be a war?"

"It feels… like it did last time," he said slowly. "Voldemort isn't a weak opponent; I think it's best to be prepared for the worst rather than hope for the best where he's concerned. That's what the Order aims to do."

I expected to feel a sense of dread at Sirius's confirmation of my fears, but that emotion was overshadowed by something greater. Ever since You-Know-Who's return, I'd been left in the dark about everything that was happening and the real danger that I was in, in an effort to keep me protected by staying unaware. It was actually nice to have someone be totally honest with me- someone who didn't think that I was too much of a child to know what was going on.

Whilst I contemplated this, Sirius's gaze turned back to the photograph. It took me a moment to realize that he wasn't staring at Pettigrew, like I'd assumed, but at James. I think Sirius treatment of me as more than a simple child prompted me to say what I did next.

"I know this doesn't mean much… but I'm sorry about James," I said gently.

Sirius's head shot to look at me, a mixture of surprise and shock on his face. "Oh, Bree… that was… thank you."

"And I'm sorry about what happened to you after you lost him. I know I'm just a kid to you guys but I'm a pretty good listener sometimes," I said. And I was being completely honest with him. Sirius had been locked up in Azkaban a week after his best friend was murdered, where he had stayed for twelve years. He'd been alone and on the run for the past two years. At no point in his life had Sirius been given a time to grieve in a healthy way. I'd bet anything that nobody had spoken to him about James since they'd been told by Dumbledore that he was innocent. So yeah, I might be just a kid in my parent's eyes, but damn it, I'm a kid who cares about people.

"Do you know I haven't spoken to anybody about this for longer than you've been able to talk at all?" He mused. I stayed silent. "You don't act seventeen, you know."

"I don't?"

"Not bloody much at all. You act more mature than your older brother, that's for sure." I smiled widely at him. Sirius was back to joking, but by the way he looked at me, I knew he'd taken my words seriously. I was proven right a moment later. "James was more to me than my best friend. He was my brother in all but blood."

I stayed silent, as he took a moment to turn and glance around his old bedroom, before wandering to sit down on his old worn out armchair.

"You may have noticed but uh… I didn't exactly fit in with my family. Loathed the lot of them, to be more specific, and the feeling was most certainly mutual. I ran away when I was fifteen. I lived at the Potter's from that day on."

I had moved to sit on the bed across from him as he spoke. However, he said no more than that. Instead, he surprised me. "George told me that you uh… you were good friends with Cedric Diggory."

My immediate reaction whenever somebody mentioned Cedric was to shut down the conversation. I didn't want to talk simply because I didn't think they'd understand. They gave me that look that I had grown to hate, full of sympathy, but not full of understanding. How could they understand? I'd never lost anybody before. Neither had anyone in my family, and nobody I knew was as close to Cedric as I was. Their attempts to understand were worse than staying silent.

But Sirius… he did understand. He'd lost everyone and everything that he held close and he had survived that. I glanced up at him and what I saw made my breath hitch.

He was staring back at me, but it wasn't the look I was used to. Sirius really understood. It was that look that made me open my mouth, and though I'd thought this conversation was about him, I soon realized that he'd always intended for it to be about me. And once I'd started talking, it felt almost impossible to stop.

"I uh… I didn't know Cedric for long," I started, my mouth suddenly dry. "I knew him for less than a year but as soon as I met him we got along. We were immediately friends."

I paused here, but Sirius didn't say anything. He just waited whilst I gathered my thoughts, and for this I was glad.

"It was just… he was so full of life, ya know? He was in his seventh year and about to graduate and he was making plans for the rest of his life. He was looking to work with his Father and to take his girlfriend on a trip to Paris. I mean, he had_ plans_. He was only 18, he'd barely even lived yet; he had his whole life ahead of him," I spoke quietly. "And I can't stop thinking about the way that he died. His life was stolen from him… he must have been so terrified…"

There was a long pause when neither of us spoke.

"When does it get better?" I eventually asked quietly, and Sirius just stared at me for a moment.

"It doesn't," he said simply. "It's been thirteen years and not a day goes by that I don't think about James."

I let out a strangled breath at his words, but he continued speaking.

"The thing is Bree, you have to be strong. People who haven't lost someone don't understand what it's like. They expect you to mourn but they eventually want you to move on, even though you're not sure you can do that. But I think the trick is that you don't have to forget them to move on… You just have to find a way to deal with the fact that they're not around anymore." Sirius said gently. "I know this is the most cliché line you're ever going to hear, but it's true; they're in a better place now. And I know that one day, when I end up there too, James will have been waiting for me."

I didn't realize I was crying until Sirius stood and sat next to me on the bed, putting his arm around my shoulders to comfort me and I realized that my cheeks were wet.

"It's just…" I managed to say, "I don't want him to be in a better place. I want him to be_ here_."

Sirius pulled me closer to him and I rested my head against his shoulder, allowing myself to cry for Cedric Diggory.

For half an hour, I spoke of Cedric. I spoke of his cheerful, happy attitude, of his kindness to everyone, and the stories I had of him. And eventually, Sirius began to tell me stories of James, too.

I left Sirius's bedroom half an hour later feeling different. I felt cleansed… I felt open. No longer did I think of Cedric and think of the manner of his death. I thought of Cedric and associated his name with the happy memories I had of him.

Sirius Black had helped me recover… and I'd like to think I helped him, too.

* * *

><p>The next day brought a major order meeting. Huge. Everyone was present, listening to Dumbledore give a report. The twins were too smart to use the Extendable Ears with Dumbledore present, so we were forced to sit and wait. Finally, after around forty minutes, Dumbledore and McGonagall left the house, the door to the kitchen closing behind them, showing that despite their absence, the meeting would be continuing. George scrambled to his feet and hurried to the railing along the staircase, his brother and I close behind him. I reached him just as he was unravelling one of the Ears, the string falling down the two flights of stairs before coming to stop close to the kitchen door.<p>

In a second, voices came into focus.

"...he's getting stronger by the minute!" came Sirius's voice. "We have to act now!"

"Though your eagerness to finally be doing something useful is truly endearing," came Snape's condescending tone, "What do you propose we do, exactly?"

"We've got to remove Harry from Privet Drive. He's unsafe there," Sirius snapped, ignoring Snape's dig at his lack of usefulness- a dig I knew Sirius would be taking seriously.

"We can't be too hasty," Remus attempted to placate. "Dumbledore has said Harry is protected there and I trust that. He wouldn't leave him there if he didn't believe he was safe."

"Voldemort tried to kill him once," Sirius snapped lowly. "Every single one of us knows he'll try and do that again."

I glanced up at the twins, hoping that my worry wasn't too clear on my face. It was apparent by their expressions that it was. "What if he's right?" I whispered. "What if Harry isn't safe there?"

The twins looked like they didn't quite know how to answer. Fred glanced back down at where the Extendable Ear was, before a terrified expression came over his face. "Shit!"

My question had provided enough of a distraction for the twins not to hear footsteps coming closer to the door. Now, as we stared down in horror, Mrs Weasley stood in front of the open kitchen door, staring down at the Extendable Ear in confusion.

George dropped the string and the three of us scrambled away from the railing and into their bedroom. It took under ten seconds for Mrs Weasley to connect the dots. "BOYS!" she screamed up the stairs, before her thundering footsteps could be heard on the stairs.

Before I knew what was happening, Fred and George had thrown open their trunks. It was obvious they'd been prepared for this event for quite a while, as they began to hide the Extendable Ears and a number of other inventions I hadn't seen yet around the room. It was obvious from their faces that they knew their attempts were more than likely going to be futile.

So just before Mrs Weasley threw the door open, I grabbed two big handfuls of whatever I could grab, shoved it down my bra, and then apparated back to my bedroom as the boys looked at me in surprise.

For a whole hour, the entire house was subjected to Mrs Weasley's screaming at the twins (except the soundproofed kitchen where the meeting was taking place). We listened as the twins yelled back at her about the fact that it didn't matter how much she didn't like it, a joke shop was where their futures lay. And so then we listened as Mrs Weasley tore apart their bedroom and found as many hidden joke shop products as possible, the whole time yelling that a joke shop simply wasn't a future she would accept for two of her sons.

But after an hour, it seemed the three of them ran out of steam, and Mrs Weasley stormed back down the stairs to rejoin the Order meeting. Once the door to the kitchen slammed shut behind her, the twins scrambled out of their room and across to mine. Their faces were red from their anger and yelling, but they book looked immeasurably hopeful as they stood in the doorway and stared at me.

I reached into my shirt and took out the joke shop products I'd managed to salvage, and George jumped on me in a huge hug with a loud laugh.

"I LOVE YOUR BRA!" Fred, in his enthusiasm, yelled a bit too loudly.

Well if the argument between the twins and their mother didn't confuse the occupants of the house, then that proclamation certainly did.

* * *

><p>A few days later saw us sitting in the kitchen as Mom and Mrs Weasley prepared dinner for us and our guests: Remus (who practically lived here anyway), Mad-Eye, and Tonks. I liked Tonks, but had only really spoken to her a handful of times before, so Ginny and I ensured to sit across from her at the dining room table. Fred sat beside me, chatting with Remus, Mad-Eye and Sirius, who sat at the head of the table as usual. Sam, Toby, Ron, Hermione and George had all been roped into helping out with dinner- a fact I took great enjoyment from, as in the weeks we'd lived at Grimmauld Place, Toby had managed to escape cooking and cleaning duty every time. He looked very put out to have failed in that endeavor tonight.<p>

Now, I hadn't had much to do with Ginny since starting Hogwarts due to our large age gap, but I was getting to know her quite well living in such confined quarters. Let me tell ya, Ginny Weasley is not someone you want to fuck with. She is tough as hell. I don't wonder why, growing up with so many older brothers. I found that I was coming to see Ginny as a really good friend, in a sort of younger sister type of way. I'd been spending an increasing amount of time around her these past few weeks.

She and I both absolutely adored Tonks and her metamorphagus displays. Hermione tried to act more mature than that but she always ended up laughing just as hard as us.

"No, no, no," Tonks laughed, waving us off. "That's enough for now!"

She glanced over at something behind me, lowering her voice and saying "Molly looks about ready to throw me out of the kitchen for being so disruptive. You two are a bad influence on me, you know."

"Oh, I doubt that," I scoffed, and she shot me a wink. George appeared at my side then, a water jug in his hands.

"Annabel wants to know if you and Moody will be staying for dinner," he said to Tonks, who grinned widely up at him.

"There's no way I'd willingly miss out on Molly's cooking!" she exclaimed, and George smiled tightly, his relationship with his mother still on edge. He glanced down, and refilled my glass of water without me having to ask, his forced smile turning more sincere, before walking away again. I smiled before picking up my glass, before glancing up to see Tonks staring at me, a knowing look on her face.

"You two are adorable," she said. "How long have you been together?"

I choked on the water I'd been drinking, spitting half of it back into the cup and the other half onto the table. "_What?!_" I managed to get out through my coughs. Tonks looked taken aback. Ginny and Fred were laughing loudly as Fred thumped a hand down on my back.

"What?" Tonks asked, looking confused. "I think it's sweet… the way he takes care of you."

"We're not dating!" I finally managed to say, and her eyes widened in shock.

"Why not?!" she cried, and Fred muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "That's what I said."

"Just- he's my best friend," I said uncomfortably, and Tonks suddenly looked very, very embarrassed.

"Oh Merlin," she groaned, covering her eyes with her hand. "I'm so sorry, I just assumed. I shouldn't have assumed. But in my defense, you two would be adorable together."

"Agreed," Ginny chirped, and against my will, I felt myself beginning to blush. I was saved from any further interrogation from the group that seemed suddenly too excited by this conversation by the kitchen door slamming open.

Turning in my chair, I saw Arthur run in, his eyes wide and panic stricken, his face red as though he had run all the way here. "Harry's been attacked!" he yelled, breathless.

And then, everyone was on their feet, and there was chaos.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry about the wait, everyone! I'm in the middle of a set of exams for my final year of high school right now, so things have been busy. But here you are! <strong>

**I didn't want to smooth over the death of one of the character's like some authors do; it seems tactless. Besides that, I think this is a great relationship builder for Bree and Sirius.**

**ALSO! Shameless self promotion: If any of you are a fan of Twilight (more specifically Jacob) or even just a fan of my writing style, check out my new story, Lost & Found!**

**But apart from that, I hope you all enjoyed.**


	17. Ickle Ronnikins the Prefect

Sirius was on his feet yelling before I had even begun to comprehend the situation. Mrs Weasley was by the table in a second, and through the insanity we managed to realize she was telling us to get out of the kitchen and go to our bedrooms.

"But- Mom! Dad!" Sam cried, his eyes wide and terrified. "What happened?!"

We didn't get an answer. We got the kitchen door closed in our faces and a weak promise from Mrs Weasley to tell us everything when she knew more.

We all ended up in the twin's room on the first floor. None of us spoke, terrified thoughts flashing through our minds. We didn't even know if Harry was okay.

"He'll be alright," Hermione said shakily after half an hour of silence. "He has to be."

Nobody answered.

It was around ten minutes after that when the door handle turned, causing all of us to sit up eagerly and turn to the door to see Mrs Weasley come in.

"He's alright," she said before we had the chance to say anything, and I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding. Thank Merlin.

"What happened?!" Ron demanded. "Who attacked him?!"

"Dementors," Mrs Weasley responded, before we interrupted again.

"_What_?!" I cried. "So far from Azkaban? What were they doing there?"

Mrs Weasley shook her head. I suddenly noticed how exhausted she looked; like she'd aged ten years within the past hour. "We have no idea," Mrs Weasley said, "but some of the Order members have gone to collect him. He'll be here in an hour or so."

There was a pause when we all nodded, before Mrs Weasley continued.

"He's been expelled from Hogwarts," she held her hands up to silence us when we made to interrupt her again, "but Dumbledore's dealing with it. He's at the Ministry. There's going to be a formal hearing in a few weeks to decide what'll happen to him."

"What the bloody hell did he do?!" Fred demanded, outraged on Harry's behalf- as we all were. Our sadness and confusion had morphed into anger.

"He used magic in the presence of a muggle- a patronus charm," she told us, and Ron spluttered, looking too angry to even form words.

"What, he used a patronus to repel a Dementor? What was he meant to do?! Let it attack him?!" George demanded.

Mrs Weasley shook her head. "I know as much as you do, at this point. It doesn't make any sense. Just try not to crowd him when he arrives, he's been through a lot today."

She left us then, in total silence. It took me a moment to gather my thoughts together before I said anything.

"Sirius said this would happen," I said, my voice shaking. "He said Harry needed to be here, and nobody listened to him. Now look at what's happened."

"No," Fred said forcefully, standing from the bed and beginning to pace. "This isn't the Order's fault, it's the Ministry's. It's Fudge! It's all Fudge, and his inability to fucking listen to the truth!"

Hermione nodded. "He's been discrediting Harry all summer. Anybody else would have been given a warning for underage magic- it's the standard punishment for first time offenders. So what makes Harry special enough to warrant a trial?" she paused, looking around at us. "This is the excuse Fudge has been looking for. He wants Harry to shut his mouth and go away. Expelling him from Hogwarts and kicking him out of the wizarding world is the perfect way."

* * *

><p>The knowledge that Harry would soon be arriving comforted us all enough to go our separate ways, biding the time until he was safely in the house. Ron, Hermione and Sam wandered up the stairs to the boy's room, and Ginny went somewhere downstairs after Fred and George had a whispered conversation with her, carrying a bag they'd given her that looked suspiciously like a bag of dungbombs. The twins and I ended up in their bedroom, as I lay back on George's bed reading and they sat at the desk in the corner of the room, tinkering away with one of their projects.<p>

I'd assumed that our reuniting with Harry would've been a pretty laidback affair, you know- hugs all around, stories about our summers, laughs about the absurdity of our current situations. This did not happen.

The three of us became aware of Harry's arrival at Grimmauld Place because he began to yell, very loudly, at Ron, Sam and Hermione. It was difficult to make out what he was saying at first- the floor between us and Ron's room muffled the noise.

And then he began to yell louder.

"So Harry doesn't seem too happy," Fred said conversationally, turning in his chair to glance at me. "Terribly rude to interrupt us all with his aggression, isn't it?"

By this point, Harry was yelling something about being stuck in Privet Drive all summer. Yeah, I could see why he'd be upset about that, especially in light of recent events.

After another moment, the yelling stopped. The three of us listened closely for a while, waiting to see if he would begin again, and when it became apparent he wouldn't we took it as our cue to enter the conversation.

With a loud CRACK, I appeared on Sam's bed, closely followed by a similar noise as the twins landed on either side of me.

"Stop _doing_ that," Hermione gasped weakly. I glanced up at Harry then, to see that his hair was shorter than the last time I'd seen him and he looked a bit paler and thinner.

"Hello, Harry," George said, beaming at him and completely ignoring Hermione. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle your anger up like that, Harry, let it all out," Fred said, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away you didn't hear you."

Harry just stared at us grumpily.

"It would've taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk up the stairs," Ron said in annoyance.

"Time is galleons, little brother," Fred shrugged. "Now if you're done shouting…"

"…do you want to hear something a little bit more interesting?" George finished, holding up one of the Extendable Ears and grinning widely.

"You need to be careful with those," Ron said, staring down at the Ear. "If Mum sees one of them again…"

"It's worth the risk; that's got to be a major meeting they're having down there, in light of recent events," Fred replied, just as the door opened and Ginny entered.

"Oh, hello Harry," Ginny said cheerily, not seeming at all surprised to see him. "I thought I heard your voice."

She turned to the twins. "It's a no go with the Extendable Ears; she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

The twins groaned loudly, looking crestfallen. "How do you know that?" I wondered aloud.

"Tonks told me how to find out. You just have to chuck things at the door and if they can't make contact then the doors been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the extendable ears will be able to get under the gap."

"How have you even still got any of those?" Sam asked curiously, motioning to the Ear. "Mrs Weasley seemed pretty damn thorough when she tore your room up the other day."

I cleared my throat loudly to avoid the twins saying anything. The truth was, my bra had become their new favorite hiding place, with their joke products ending up there a total of three times in the past week when Mrs Weasley became suspicious.

"It's a shame the doors been charmed," I changed the subject quickly, and Fred nodded his agreement.

"I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to," he said disappointedly.

"Snape!" Harry cried, sounding aghast. "He's here?"

"Yeah, the git," Fred said idly.

"He's on our side now," Hermione said reprovingly, and Fred rolled his eyes.

"That doesn't stop him from being a git," Ron answered. "The way he looks at us when he sees us…"

"Bill doesn't like him either," Ginny said, as though that completely settled the matter. Which I suppose for their family, it probably did.

"Is Bill here? I thought he was working in Egypt?" Harry asked curiously.

"He applied for a desk job so he could help out with the Order; he arrived yesterday. Charlie's still in Romania, and Dumbledore's recruited him in getting as many foreign wizards involved as possible. It's the same with Bree and Sam's Aunt Rosa in America," George answered.

Harry considered this for a moment. "Couldn't Percy be making contact with foreign wizards? It seems like a job in International Cooperation at the Ministry would be the perfect opportunity."

At the mention of Percy's name, every single one of us froze.

"Um… well…" Sam began hesitantly.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy's name in front of Mum or Dad," Ron said in a tense voice. Harry's confused expression prompted Fred to go into details of a story which seemed worse and worse every time I heard it.

Ten minutes later, Harry's expression mirrored the horrified one I'd worn the first time I'd heard the recount of what has happened between Percy and the rest of the Weasley's.

And very suddenly, the conversation turned from somber… to kind of awkward.

"Your name got dragged into the row," Ron said uncomfortably. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and… I dunno… he didn't think it was good enough."

The conversation was about to continue when suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Uh oh."

Fred grabbed the Extendable Ear from where it lay on the bed, before the three of us disappeared with another loud CRACK!

Not one minute later, Mrs Weasley was knocking on the twin's door to tell us to come downstairs for dinner, which we excitedly did; it felt like hours since Mom and Mrs Weasley had started cooking.

"Do remember to be quiet in the hall, Harry," I heard Mrs Weasley say as we began to walk down the stairs, seeing the last of the Order members leaving through the front door. "The kitchen is just through this door here-"

CRASH!

"Tonks!" Mrs Weasley cried, just as a second, louder crash rang out around the room as the shock of the first crash caused me to slip on the last stair, toppling down on top of Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor after tripping over the troll leg umbrella stand.

Tonks began to wail an apology as the twins began to laugh at our clumsiness, but it was too late- Mrs Black had begun to scream.

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half breeds, mutants, freaks, be gone from this place!" Mrs Black wailed, as Tonks began chanting "I'm so, so sorry!"

A moment later, Sirius had sprinted up the stairs from the kitchen, hurtling himself at the huge portrait and attempting to drag the curtains closed, yelling at his mother to shut up as Remus appeared, rushing to help him.

With their combined effort, they managed to force the curtains closed, leaving us in a silence still echoing the woman's screams.

Sirius turned, sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes before shooting Harry a grin. "Hello, Harry," he said conversationally, "I see you've met my mother."

I didn't get to hear Harry's response to Sirius's smooth introduction because Tonks began apologizing again, and her head was directly next to mine. George bent down and pulled me to my feet, still chuckling to himself, before he led me down the stairs into the kitchen.

"I'll assume it was you who set Sirius's mum off, then?" Toby asked when he spotted me, not bothering to stand up from where he sat at the dining table with Mr Weasley, Moody, Bill and our parents, who were collecting rolls of parchment that were spread around the table from the meeting.

Dad looked up from the parchment in front of him at Toby's words, his eyes immediately shooting behind me and widening ever so slightly. Turning curiously to follow his gaze, I saw Harry enter the room, looking happier than I'd yet seen him as he spoke to his godfather.

"Sit down, Harry," Sirius said, and his cheerful tone drew to my attention the bright gleam his face had taken on. He was happier with his godson around, too. "Have you met Mundungus?"

At the name, what I'd assumed to be a pile of dirty rags gave a start from the other end of the table. "Someone say my name?" Mundungus mumbled sleepily, and I rolled my eyes as Ginny giggled.

Not quite a pile of rags, but something very close to it in usefulness.

Sirius cast one amused glance at Mundungus before moving down the table. "And here we have the rest of the Montero clan,"

"Don't let Bree put you off, the rest of us are decent," Toby said immediately, and grinned when I poked my tongue out at him (very maturely).

Dad stood up and shook Harry's hand. "I'm Thomas. This is my wife Annabel, and my eldest son, Toby," he said, his tone of awe not quite as well masked as he seemed to think it was as he spoke to the Boy Who Lived. "It's a real pleasure to meet you, Harry. I've heard so much about you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all, too," Harry said genuinely, taking a seat next to Sirius as Mrs Weasley bustled over to the kitchen counter where dinner was still half made from when Mr Weasley had burst in hours earlier. With one look from Mom, Sam and I were at the kitchen counter ready to help out, and the twins joined us soon enough after I assumed they'd gotten a similar look from their Mother. Our Moms have really bonded since they met; Mom's glares were getting more Mrs Weasley-like every day.

With our combined efforts, dinner was ready in under twenty minutes. It was a cheerful affair, with friendly conversations and lots of laughter. I noticed that Harry was a lot more cheerful than when he had arrived at Grimmauld Place, and I was glad. He really hadn't had the best time recently. Bill and Toby had surprised me with how quickly they'd become close friends since they met recently, and were currently laughing with each other as they recounted their school days.

It was nearing ten o'clock when the last of the plates were cleared away, and Mrs Weasley gave a large yawn. "Nearly time for bed, I think," she said.

"Not just yet, Molly," Sirius said, placing his goblet onto the table and linking his hands together, turning to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

The entire atmosphere of the room changed immediately from cheerfully relaxed to tense and alert, as I sat up in my seat and turned to stare at Harry, too.

"I did!" he said indignantly, "I asked Ron, Hermione and Sam, but they said we aren't allowed in the Order, so-"

"And they're_ quite right_," Mrs Weasley interrupted now sitting bolt upright and looking very tense, "You're far too young."

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius asked. "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month, he's got the right to know what's been happen-"

"HOLD ON!" I burst out, unable to hold it back. The twins, it seemed, had the same idea as me.

"How come he gets_ his_ questions answered?!" George burst out. "We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single thing!"

"'_You're too young, you're not in the Order,'_" Fred imitated in a high pitched voice that actually sounded uncannily like his mother's. "Harry's not even of age!"

"It's not up to me what you're told; that's your parent's decision. Harry, on the other hand-"

Mrs Weasley interrupted Sirius again. "It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" she said sharply. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I hope?"

"Which bit?" he asked in a tone so polite it was clear it was intended to be anything but.

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he _needs to know_," she said with heavy emphasis, staring Sirius down. My head was constantly swiveling between them, eager not to miss anything.

"I don't intend to tell him more than he _needs to know_," Sirius said sharply. "but I think it's infinitely more desirable for him to hear the facts from us instead of a mangled version from anyone else."

His tone held such heavy meaning that Harry actually interrupted before Mrs Weasley could backfire this time.

"Wait… what 'others' are you talking about?" He asked curiously. "Are other people talking about Voldemort?"

He sounded so innocent and so naïve that it was immediately apparent he had no idea what was being publicly said about him.

"Er… haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet, Harry?" Hermione asked tentatively, and he shook his head.

"No. When I realized they wouldn't be reporting anything on Voldemort, I cancelled my subscription." Harry said. "Why? Did they report something?"

For a moment, everyone stayed silent. Moody was eventually the one to break it. "Show him. It's better he finds out from us."

Dad reached behind him to where the scrolls from the Order meeting were resting. Underneath them was a stack of newspapers, and he pulled the top one out hesitantly, handing it to Harry.

I watched his face as he unfolded the paper, only to be confronted by his own face staring up at him. Above the photograph were the words _'THE BOY WHO LIES?'_

I watched carefully as Harry swallowed, reading the headline over again as though he thought he may have been imagining it. And then when he looked up again, he looked more determined than I'd ever seen him.

"I want to know what's going on," he said forcefully. "I deserve to know."

It was silent for a moment. Mrs Weasley's lower lip was trembling and it was clear she knew she'd lost this battle. A moment later it became clear she was determined to win at least one battle of the night.

"Right," she eventually said. "Ginny- Ron- Hermione- Fred- George- I want you out of the kitchen, now."

"Bree, Sam- you too," Dad said, and immediately, noise erupted.

Fred and George were on their feet around the same time I was.

"WE'RE OF AGE!" Fred and George bellowed together.

"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?!" Ron shouted.

"THAT IS SO UNFAIR!" I yelled at Dad, staring him down across the table as he pushed himself to his feet the same time Mrs Weasley did, the both of them looking ready for a fight.

"NO!" Mrs Weasley shouted. "I absolutely forbid it-"

"You're far too young!" Dad yelled, "I won't allow it-"

"This isn't just your fight! This involves all of us, and we have every right to be here!" Sam shouted back.

My argument was not as well constructed as my little brothers. "I'M OF AGE!" I yelled as the twins continued to have the same argument with their parents.

"Molly," Arthur interrupted us wearily, "you can't stop Fred and George. They're of age,"

"They're still at school-"

"But they're legally adults now," he said in the same tired voice, and Mom took Dad's hand, calling his attention down to where she remained seated beside him.

"Arthur's right- Bree's of age now,"

Dad spluttered for a moment, looking as shocked as I was that Mom had said anything in my defense. "_No_!" he finally managed to say defiantly. "She's my daughter and I don't want her anywhere near the Order of the Phoenix-"

"Well then maybe moving me into their headquarters wasn't the brightest of ideas," I interrupted. "I'm seventeen now, and I'm staying!"

Dad looked furious. "Fine! Sam- bed!"

Mrs Weasley had the same idea. "Ron-" she began, before her son interrupted.

"Harry will tell me, Hermione and Sam everything you say anyway!" Ron said hotly.

"Won't- won't you?" Sam asked hesitantly, looking up at Harry.

"Course I will," Harry said in a split second, causing the fifth years to beam.

"FINE! GINNY- BED!" Mrs Weasley shouted. The youngest Weasley did not go quietly, raging and storming at her Mother all the way up the stairs.

"I'm not happy about this," Dad said definitively from where he now sat back at the table, staring Sam and I down.

"Well, I suppose we're all gonna have to learn to deal with our problems," I said snappishly, and Dad shot me a look telling me to watch my mouth.

When Mrs Weasley returned from ensuring Ginny went to bed, Sirius began to speak.

"What do you want to know?" he asked Harry.

"Where's Voldemort?" he asked without any hesitation. "What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the muggle news, and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."

"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet," Sirius answered, "at least not as far as we know, anyway… and we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do, anyway," Lupin added.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," Sirius said. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."

"Or, you messed it up for him," Lupin said.

Harry looked confused. "How did I do that?"

"You weren't supposed to survive," Sirius said simply. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters were meant to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness. Not only that, but the very last person he wanted alerted to his return was Dumbledore- thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix less than an hour after Voldemort returned."

Harry nodded, considering what they'd said for a moment. "So what has the Order been doing?"

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," Sirius said.

"And how do you know what his plans are?"

"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," Lupin answered, "and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas usually turn out to be accurate."

"So what does Dumbledore think he's planning?"

"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again," Sirius said. "In the old days he had huge numbers of wizards at his command: witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of dark creatures… He's not going to try to take on the Ministry with only a dozen Death Eaters. We're trying to stop him from building his numbers back up."

Harry was silent for a moment, in which time he glanced back down at the Daily Prophet. "And uh… what's this about?" he asked, trying his hardest to sound as though it didn't bother him.

This time, it was Tonks who spoke. "Harry, you saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back the night of the third task. He hasn't shifted his position at all; he's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."

"Fudge is using all his influence over the media to smear the name of anyone who challenges this idea," Lupin said. "He's attacking you and Dumbledore most of all."

"Dumbledore?" Harry repeated, sounding confused. "Why Dumbledore?"

"Well," Sirius said, "because the Minister thinks that Dumbledore is after his job."

Harry's jaw dropped. "But- but that's insane!" he finally managed to say. "How could anybody in their right mind believe that?!"

"Harry, Fudge isn't in his right mind!" Lupin said. "It's been twisted and warped by fear. The last time Voldemort gained power he nearly destroyed everything we hold most dear. Fudge doesn't want to face that it could happen again- and more importantly, if it was happening again, that Dumbledore would be the best man for his job."

Toby nodded. "He doesn't want to face what's happened, so he's denying it, and discrediting anybody who challenges him. Hence the Daily Prophet; they're writing about you like you're this deluded, attention seeking guy who thinks he's this great tragic hero or something. They're turning you into somebody nobody will ever believe."

"Not only that, but the Ministry is leaning very heavily on the Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumor-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened. That makes them easy targets for death eaters using the Imperius Curse," Dad said.

"But- but you're still telling people, aren't you?" Harry asked, looking around at them all. "You're still telling them he's back?"

Sirius snorted. "Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mass murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out pamphlets, can I?"

"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," Lupin added. "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."

"If Tonks, Arthur, Kingsley and I shoot out mouths off we'd get fired from the Ministry, and potentially jailed for treason. It's more important for us to be spies inside the Ministry, because there's no doubt that Voldemort will have them," Dad said.

"Yeah, and Kingsley's been great to have because he's the head of the hunt for Sirius," Toby said, as he and Sirius grinned, "so he's been feeding the Ministry information that he's in Tibet."

"But… if you can't put the news out and Voldemort's recruiting more Death Eater's it's bound to come out that he's back, right?" Harry asked desperately.

"He doesn't go door knocking with a donation tin and a sign-up sheet," Sirius said sarcastically, "he tricks, jinxes, and blackmails people- something he's very well practiced in. In any case, gathering followers isn't the only thing he's interested in."

"Well, what else is there?" Harry asked quickly.

Sirius considered him for a moment. "We believe that Voldemort may be after something," he said slowly.

"Sirius," Moody warned.

Sirius continued anyway. "Something he didn't have last time."

"Like… like a weapon?" Harry asked, but before Sirius could answer, Mrs Weasley had jumped up from her seat.

"That's enough!" she cried, looking furious. "I want you in bed now- all of you."

"Wait a second," Fred said, "you can't boss us around-"

"_Watch me!_" she snarled at him. "That's quite enough. Any more information and you might as well just induct him into the Order right now,"

"Good!" Harry said quickly. "I want to join. I want to fight!"

This time it was not Mrs Weasley who answered, but Lupin. "No. The Order is only compromised of over aged wizards-" Fred opened his mouth until Lupin added forcefully "-wizards who have left school. There are dangers involved of which you have no idea. Molly's right; we've said enough."

Sirius shrugged as Mrs Weasley ushered us all to our feet. I glanced back at Sirius one last time, and we all slowly recognized defeat, filing out of the kitchen after Mrs Weasley and up the stairs.

"I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking," she said as we reached the first landing. "Goodnight."

"Night," I called to the twins as Hermione and I entered our bedroom, winking at them when Mrs Weasley turned her back to continue on up the stairs with Sam, Harry, and Ron.

The door had barely closed behind us before I had Apparated and appeared on George's bed.

"Well that was a load of crap," Fred said conversationally, as though I hadn't just appeared out of thin air, but had been there the whole time. "They didn't tell us anything we didn't already know from the Extendable Ears."

We fell silent as the floorboards outside creaked, telling us that Mrs Weasley was making her way back downstairs. She paused slightly outside the twins room, as though listening, before continuing on her way again.

"It's like she doesn't trust us at all," George said breezily, "I can't imagine why."

"Come on, let's go see what the others have to say about all this," Fred said, and with a CRACK we appeared in the upstairs bedroom.

"OUCH!" came Ron's voice, before something shifted underneath me and I fell off the bed, flat on my face onto the ground.

With a groan, I rolled over and looked up at Ron's face in the darkness, from where he was leaning over the bed I'd just been pushed off of. "Well, fuck you too, Ron," I said crossly, massaging my sore forehead.

"You all just Apparated on my knees!" Ron snapped by way of apology.

"Yeah, well, it's harder in the dark!" I said back, before Fred let out a shushing noise.

"Keep your voices down or Mum will be back up here!" he cried, as he and his brother shifted slightly so they were sitting on the edge of the bed rather than their brother's knees. I hoisted myself to my feet and flopped down beside where Sam was already sitting on Harry's bed beside where the dark haired boy lay.

"Now, what about this weapon Sirius mentioned?" Fred asked, and I could hear the grin in his voice.

"Or let slip, more like," George commented. "We didn't hear about that on the good old Extendable Ears, did we?"

"So what do you reckon it is?" Harry asked.

I shrugged. "Could be anything, really."

"There can't be anything worse than the Avada Kedavra curse, can there?" Sam asked. "What would be worse than death?"

"Maybe it's something than can kill loads of people at once," George suggested.

"Or a particularly painful way of killing people," Ron suggested, his voice wavering slightly.

There was a pause and I knew that the others, like me, were wondering what kind of horrors this weapon could create. Everybody knew about You-Know-Who's last rise to power, it was a time of fear and horror in the history books. I didn't like to think that there was something that could make him even more dangerous this time around. I was unsure that was even possible.

"Who do you think's got it now?" George eventually broke the silence by asking.

"I hope it's our side," Ron said, sounding slightly nervous.

"If it is, Dumbledore's probably keeping it. Maybe at the school or-" Fred broke off suddenly, a horrified look on his face. A second later, I knew why; footsteps were just entering the landing outside.

"Mum!" Fred hissed, as Sam dived over Harry to reach his bed. With apparition being a too noisy solution, the twins and I dived onto the floor in between Ron and Harry's beds so we were hidden from the doorway, just as Mrs Weasley opened it and peeked inside.

The three of us on the ground kept completely still as we lay half on top of each other in the cramped space as she observed the room for a moment. She seemed to think that the three boys in their beds really were sleeping because she slowly closed the bedroom door behind her, and we listened as she walked back down the stairs. Without saying anything, I Apparated back into my bedroom, scaring Ginny enough to let out a small squeal from where she sat listening to Hermione speak about what we'd heard in the kitchen.

Everything that had been said that night played on my mind until the early hours of the morning. When I eventually fell into a fitful rest, it felt like it only lasted a moment before I was awoken by George's voice.

"Mum says to get up, breakfast is in the kitchen and then she needs you all in the drawing room, there are loads more Doxy's than she thought, it's gonna take a real effort to get rid of them."

I groaned loudly. Another day in paradise.

* * *

><p>The next few days were as normal as they could be, living in an odd place like Grimmauld Place. Harry had sheepishly apologized for his outburst when he'd first arrived, and he'd quickly fallen into the easy routine we had in this house. The twin's relationship with their mother remained rocky as they all cooled down from her outburst over their joke shop plans, becoming worse each time she conducted a random check of their bedroom for products she somehow knew they still had. I prayed Mrs Weasley never discovered I was their products main hiding place. At one point, I'd been sitting in my room with Ginny chatting about a plan we had to go shopping when Fred appeared, his eyes wide and panicked as he threw the door open and nearly fell over in his haste to shove a handful of odd looking pills down my shirt. Then he turned and sprinted back across the hall into his own room without ever saying a word. Ginny had found it more amusing than I did.<p>

Apart from that, our main activity was continuing the war we'd started with the house. It took three days to decontaminate the drawing room, with more and more doxy's appearing every time we thought we'd wiped out the last of them. Then we moved to the upstairs bedrooms, where Sirius appeared once a day carrying a large bag of dead rats and disappeared into the attic, an action which I'll be honest and say creeped me out endlessly. I mean, what the fuck is he doing up there?

Time flew past at an almost alarming rate, and before we knew it, the night before Harry's trial had arrived. We avoided the topic all day and kept his mind on more cheerful things, until dinner time.

"I've ironed your best clothes for tomorrow morning, Harry. A good first impression can work wonders," she said quietly.

Everyone fell silent and I sneaked a look at Harry. He had gone quite pale.

"How am I getting there?" he asked calmly.

"Arthur is taking you to work with him," Mrs Weasley replied calmly, and her husband smiled encouragingly at him over the table.

"You can wait in my office until it's time for the hearing."

An awkward silence had descended upon us, and everybody seemed loathed to break it. So I did.

"It all just seems so ridiculous, there's no possible way they won't clear your name," I said airily. "I mean, you cast a patronus charm. What use would a patronus be apart from taking on a Dementor, ya know? If you were going to use underage magic you'd do it to enchant a quill to do your homework or lock a door, typical lazy kid magic. Toby did things like that all the time when he was underage."

Dad's fist suddenly slammed down on the desk, causing everyone to jump as he turned to glare at Toby. "I KNEW IT!" he yelled. "I _knew_ you were using magic when you were underage! Oh, you are _sooo_ grounded, kid!"

Toby spluttered for a moment, looking confused as to how the topic of conversation had reached this point. "Are you kidding me? You can't ground me! I'm 20 years old! It was years ago!"

"Doesn't matter! You're grounded!" Dad yelled. "You can be forty years old with a mortgage and kids of your own, and I can _still _ground you! It's a parental right!"

"That-that-" Toby spluttered. "_No_!"

"_Yes_!"

"To be fair, you did it for years," Sam grinned, thoroughly enjoying this.

"You stay out of this! Merlin, you two are such tattle tales!" Toby snapped, shooting a glare at Sam and then shifting to me.

"Is this really happening?" Fred asked, in a tone of total wonder as he and the rest of the table's occupants watched the back and forth going on between my family in astonishment.

For the rest of the night, I kept my mouth closed for fear of letting loose another family secret. Harry looked a bit brighter, but Toby was glowering around at everyone. And though none of us thought it likely, true to his word, Dad didn't allow Toby to leave the house for anything other than work for the next two weeks.

* * *

><p>"I KNEW YOU'D GET OFF! You always get away with stuff!" Ron yelled, punching the air excitedly.<p>

Laughing giddily, I finally pried my arms off of Harry from where he'd been entrapped in an excited hug ever since he'd walked into the kitchen a moment ago and announced his court verdict.

"They were bound to clear you," Hermione said, the anxiety still clear in her tone of voice, "there was no case against you, really."

"Everyone looks pretty relieved though, considering you all knew I'd get off," Harry grinned cheekily. If only he knew that Hermione had spent the entire day pacing the length of the kitchen muttering to herself, sporadically running up the stairs to check on a fact in one of her books that may come in useful in challenging a guilty verdict, then eventually returning to her pacing; Ron had refused any piece of food offered to him, a concerning event considering he ate more than anyone I'd ever met no matter what the occasion was; Sam had attempted to sleep in so he wouldn't have to deal with his thoughts, but eventually his anxiety got the better of him and he moved down to the kitchen to sit amongst the others, looking totally ill; the twins stopped all their experiments for the joke products for the day, as they were too distracted to get any real work done; Molly let out her fretting by baking nonstop; Sirius snapped at every single person who came near him and made the trip from the kitchen to the attic and back again six times; and I chewed all my nails right down, plaited my hair eight different times, and generally was unable to sit still at all (I was so distracted I didn't even ponder the continual question of what the hell Sirius was doing in the attic). When Harry walked into the kitchen a moment ago, for a moment the air in the room stilled to a complete tenseness, broken by Harry's large grin and me climbing over the table to throw myself on him.

"This is wonderful news! I'll bake a celebratory cake-" I broke off when I caught sight of the entire table full of food already from Mrs Weasley's nervous pottering. "Oh… maybe next time…"

From that day onwards, time flew past at an almost alarming rate. Everyone at the house was a lot more cheerful as the first of September drew closer, and I began to anticipate returning to school. Living in the secret headquarters of the resistance against You-Know-Who wasn't nearly as interesting as you'd expect; we heard no new information since the night of Harry's arrival. Not only that, but I missed my friends. I missed Katie, Alicia, Angelina, Lee, James, and Callie. Hell, I even missed grumpy pants Draco Malfoy.

I'd kept up regular contact with my British friends, of course (minus grumpy pants, whose address I didn't know… and besides, judging by his reaction to my previous acts of kindness and attempted friendship, if he received a letter from me he might faint from shock), but the plans we'd made to see each other through the holidays had all fallen through. Angelina's mother had surprised her with a trip to Barbados (I'll assume the scenery there would be a bit brighter than my own), and Lee and Katie had banded together on a trip to Katie's Aunt's home for her 50th birthday. Alicia and I ensured to see each other as often as possible though, and the frequency of my letters with the others increased as each week went by. I severely underestimated how much I valued having them around every single day.

On the other hand, I'd hardly heard from James and Callie since they'd returned to America. Turns out during their stay in Britain they'd fallen significantly behind in schoolwork, and they didn't want to get onto the bad side of whoever the new headmaster was immediately at the beginning of their next school term, so their holidays were spent on schoolwork. I shuddered at the thought of spending my holiday in such a way, but then again, cleaning up a house with more unpleasant surprises than anything else probably wasn't much better. What I had heard from my American counterparts had been mostly positive- bored to death, but positive. They were happy to be home again and were already looking forward to my visiting them as soon as possible, and I was startled when considering this to realize that I no longer thought of America as being my home… England was.

How things can change in 12 months.

A week before the school term began, our letters arrived to prepare us to return to school- for the twins and myself, it would be the last time we did so. I tried not to get too sentimental at that realization.

I was sitting cross legged on George's bed as the twins showed me some new stock when Sam stuck his head through the door and cheerily said "School letters are here!"

"Ooooh!" I cried excitedly, jumping to my feet and rushing out the door to climb the stairs with Sam and enter the younger boy's bedroom. The twins Apparated by my side a second later and Fred shook his head at me.

"Honestly, you'd hardly know you're a witch sometimes," he said, and I shrugged him off and grabbed my letter from Harry, immediately ripping into it excitedly. Everyone else did the same in silence, until a sort of strangled gasp came from Ron.

I looked up at him in concern to see him staring down at his letter, his eyes wide and panicked, his jaw hanging open.

"What's with you?" Fred asked impatiently, standing to approach his brother. His own jaw dropped open as he, too, caught sight of the letter.

George reached over and grabbed the envelope, turning it upside down. We all watched as a gold and red badge fell onto the bed, before Fred gasped out "Prefect?!"

With a gasp, I jumped to my feet and threw my arms around him. "Oh, Ron, congratulations!" I cried happily, before pulling back in concern as he merely shook his head and continued staring down at the badge.

His brothers seemed to share his sentiment. "Oh, no," Fred scoffed, "there must have been a mistake. Nobody in their right mind would make Ron a prefect."

Simultaneously, the twins turned to stare at Harry where he sat on one of the beds next to Sam. "We thought you'd get it for certain!" George told him. "Winning the Triwizard Tournament and everything!"

Fred turned to his brother. "All that mad stuff might have worked against him rather than for him, though," he said, and George looked to be considering this.

"Yeah, I suppose you have caused a bit of trouble. At least one of you's got their priorities straight," George said, clapping Harry on the back in congratulations of his troublemaking and shooting Ron a glare.

"Oh, leave him alone! Being a prefect is something to be really proud of!" I told them, and they simultaneously rolled their eyes. Ron, meanwhile, held the prefect badge out to Sam and Harry, his mouth still hanging open, and looking as though he was asking them to confirm that it was genuine. Harry took it and looked down at the badge for a moment.

"Prefect," Fred said scathingly, "Ickle Ronnikins the prefect…"

"Oh, Mum's going to be_ revolting_ about this," George groaned, and at that moment, the door opened and Hermione came rushing in- a wide grin splitting her face, and a second shiny golden prefect badge clutched in her hand.

"Did you- did you get-?" she began, before spotting the badge in Harry's hand and letting out an excited shriek. "I knew it! I knew you'd get it! Look, me too, Harry!"

Shaking his head quickly, Harry thrust the badge back at Ron. "No, it's not me, it's Ron."

"It- what?"

"Ron's prefect," Sam clarified, and Hermione turned to stare at her ginger haired friend, a look of shock on her face.

"But… I… wow," she eventually managed to say, looking thoroughly confused. You aren't the only one, sister. "Wow! Congratulations, Ron! That's really…"

"Unexpected," George said, nodding. I tried not to laugh as Hermione stuttered for another moment. I thought perhaps my surprise at Ron becoming a prefect might have been simply because I knew him for such a small period of his schooling life, but I was beginning to realize that this wasn't the case.

"So, uh, congratulations, you two!" I cried, awkwardly breaking the silence that had descended upon us.

As Hermione blushed and decided it would probably be better to stay quiet than continue stumbling across her words, Mrs Weasley bustled into the room, a pile of freshly washed clothes in her arms.

"Ginny said that the booklist has arrived," she said, glancing around at us all holding our envelopes before wandering over to Ron's bed and started sorting the washing into piles. "If you give them to me I'll go over to Diagon Alley this afternoon and buy your new books. Ron, I'll have to get you more pajamas, yours are at least six inches too short… what color would you like?"

George smirked and answered for his brother, "Get him red and gold to match his badge."

"Match his what?" Mrs Weasley asked absently, rolling up a pair of maroon socks and placing them onto one of the piles.

"His_ badge_," Fred responded, "his lovely, shiny, new, prefect's badge."

For a moment, Mrs Weasley continued what she was doing, and then his words seemed to hit her and she dropped the clothes she'd been folding, her head snapping up. "But… Ron… you're not…?"

Ron held up his badge, and Mrs Weasley let out a loud shriek before throwing herself at her son. "I don't believe it! I don't believe it! A prefect! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! That's everyone in the family!"

At that, I let out a loud laugh as the twins glared at their mother. "What are Fred and I, next door neighbors?!" George asked indignantly, but Mrs Weasley ignored him. She continued rambling about her proudness for her son and I couldn't help the smile that worked its way onto my face as I watched Ron's face slowly turn a brighter red than his badge. Fred began to make a retching noise until I punched him in the arm.

"Oh, well you've got to have a reward for this, of course! We gave Percy an owl, but you've already got one, of course… How about a nice new pair of dress robes?"

"We already bought him some," Fred said moodily, looking like he was seriously regretting this generosity.

"Mum," Ron began hopefully, "can I have a new broom?"

Mrs Weasley's face fell, and I knew why. Broomsticks were expensive.

"Not a really good one!" Ron added hastily. "Just- just a new one for a change…"

She hesitated for a moment, and then smiled. "Oh, of course you can. Well, I'd better get going if I've got a broom to buy, too. Oh, I can't believe it… little Ronnie a prefect…"

Beaming again, she gave her son yet another kiss on the cheek before leaving the room, sniffling loudly. The room fell into silence upon her departure, broken (of course) by the twins.

"You don't mind if we don't kiss you, do you Ronnie?" Fred asked in a falsely anxious tone.

"We could curtsey instead, if you like," George added.

"Oh, shut up," Ron said, scowling at his older brothers.

An evil grin had spread over Fred's face. "Or what? You'll give us a detention?"

"I'd love to see him try," George sniggered.

"You know, he could if you don't watch out!" Hermione cried angrily, and Ron's ears turned red as the twins burst into laughter.

"Drop it, Hermione," Ron muttered to her.

"Oh, we're going to have to watch our step, George!" Fred said sarcastically, "with these two on our case…"

"Yeah, looks like our law breaking days are finally over," George answered, unable to hide his grin, before he extended a hand to wrap around my own and pulled me closer as he Apparated the two of us back downstairs to his bedroom. Fred appeared a second later, and they both immediately flopped down onto their beds and began roaring with their repressed laughter.

I rolled my eyes at them. "Seriously?!" I asked scathingly, but they ignored me and continued laughing.

"P-p-prefect!" Fred eventually managed to gasp out, and realizing I wouldn't be getting much more out of them for a while, I turned and left them alone.

* * *

><p>Mrs Weasley returned a few hours later as it was approaching dinner time. She entered the kitchen laden down with bags of books and a large broomstick wrapped in brown paper. I thanked Mrs Weasley sincerely as she handed me my books, and began flipping earnestly through <em>The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7<em>, by Miranda Goshawk as Toby glanced curiously over my shoulder from where he sat beside me at the table and Mrs Weasley exited the room to find the other members of the house and put Ron's new broomstick in his room after telling him not to bother opening it right before dinner. Ron continued to stare longingly at the door where she and the broom had disappeared for a moment after it closed behind her again.

"I wonder who set _Defensive Magical Theory_," George said curiously as he flipped over the book by Wilbert Slinkhard, "it means Dumbledore's found a new Defense Against the Dark Art's teacher."

"Yeah, we overheard Kingsley saying Dumbledore's hard a hard time finding anyone to fill the job this time around. Hardly surprising though, is it? What with the success rate of the ones we've had so far," Fred mused.

"Well, whoever it is, they can't be worse than Moody," Ron said, and I nodded my response. I still shudder thinking about the imposter Moody throwing the Imperious curse on us for fun.

"Or any worse than Lockhart," Fred laughed, only to stop suddenly when Toby choked on the water he'd been drinking and I let out a loud gasp.

Once he'd regained his breath, Toby rasped out "Lockhart?! As in… _Gilderoy Lockhart_?!"

"Author of the best seller _Wanderings with Werewolves_?!" I demanded.

"Author of the world renowned _Voyages with Vampires_?!" Toby continued.

The twins were staring down at us in horror. "Oh, no," Fred breathed.

"Oh my Merlin, are you telling me that _the_ _Gilderoy Lockhart_ was your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at some point?!" I cried.

"I'm so jealous!" Toby groaned, and then turned to me and said "I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried when I read his autobiography."

"_Magical Me_… it was chapter forty six, wasn't it?" I asked, and Toby nodded. "He's so beautiful. Can you imagine fighting off a legion of vampires singlehandedly to protect the woman you love, only to have her kidnapped by hags not even two days later?"

Toby sniffled, looking close to tears just thinking about it. "He is _so_ inspiring. Broke all records with his autobiography, it was top of the best seller charts for six whole weeks… totally deserved, though…"

I turned, intending to ask the twins more about their experiences with Lockhart, only to find that the other occupants had all evacuated the room whilst Toby and I had been talking.

Shrugging, I turned back to Toby as he began speaking about the chapters on Lockhart's school days. My dream is to meet Gilderoy Lockhart someday… I wondered where the others had gone- surely they must share my dream to meet such an inspiring man?

* * *

><p><strong>Hi there, everyone! This one was long and had a fair bit of bookfilm dialogue, but I cut it down as much as possible so we only had what was necessary. Couldn't help myself with the ending, I love some Lockhart. Anyway, I'm so excited to return to Hogwarts next chapter! There won't be any more ridiculously long waits between updates either, because I just graduated high school and am about to finish my final year exams! So exciting, now I have unlimited time to write for you! Hope you all enjoyed this one!**


	18. And Seventh Year Begins

It felt like mere moments passed before suddenly, a week had passed in the blink of an eye, and the first of September had arrived. I slept in late somehow, despite all the noise in the house as everyone struggled to find last minute items to pack for the school year ahead, and only awoke with a start when someone's body flopped down on top of mine.

I groaned loudly, trying to stretch as best I could whilst being suffocated by the mass on top of me. Turning my head in an attempt to figure out who it was, I caught sight of ginger hair. That didn't exactly narrow my list of suspects down by much, considering half the fucking house were Weasley family members.

"Breeeeeeeee," a familiar voice whined, and I realized that it was George, "it's time to get up!"

"I would if I could move my body at all," I replied, my voice muffled from where I had my face pressed into my pillow. I heard him let out a sigh of exasperation, as though moving was the biggest task I'd ever asked from him, and he rolled his body sideways to lie beside me instead. I still didn't get up.

At that moment, another body flopped down on top of my own, and I let out a huff as the air was squashed out of my body.

"Oh, for Merlin's sakes, this isn't a fucking human pyramid, I'm trying to sleep!" I snapped out, reaching up to slap whoever was on top of me this time, only to have Fred laugh maniacally as he hit my hands away from him.

Ten minutes later and I was finally out of bed and dressed, ready to head down the stairs for some breakfast. Upon exiting the room, however, a bewitched trunk flew past me, only to hit Ginny as she climbed the stairs. She let out a shriek as she toppled backwards, and I ran to the ledge with a gasp as I watched her topple down two flights of stairs to end up sprawled on the floor of the hall below. The railing shook with the force of the twins hitting it as they ran to see if their sister was alright, and I soon realized that once again they'd attempted to use magic to make their lives easier and only succeeded in almost killing somebody.

Once we realized that Ginny was in fact alive and mostly unscathed, I continued on my way into the kitchen, just as Mrs Weasley began shrieking at her sons.

"YOU COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS-" she screamed, and Mrs Black's portrait had just joined in the yelling when I shut the kitchen door behind me with a snap.

Toby, Dad, Sirius and Arthur were sat in the kitchen listening to Moody when I entered. "…We can't leave unless Sturgis Podmore's here, otherwise the Guard will be one short…" he was saying when I flopped down beside my brother.

"We're going to King's Cross with a Guard?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, Bree, it's just for you. Ya know, being the focus of all our lives and everything," Toby responded sarcastically, and I kicked him under the table. When the others began speaking again, Toby said in an undertone to me, "Don't question it, Mad-Eye will start his paranoia driven 'safety first' lecture again."

"I gather Molly's in a good mood," Sirius said sarcastically as the door opened and Sam wandered in, allowing the noise from the hall above to penetrate the quiet kitchen for a moment before the door shut behind him again, and we all heard that Mrs Weasley was still yelling at the twins.

"She's always in a good mood," Dad said dismissively, pushing a plate of pancakes towards us as Sam sat down next to me. "Now eat quickly, we'll be leaving soon and I don't want to have to return here when one of you leaves something behind."

"That happened one time!" I defended through a mouthful of pancakes.

Toby snorted. "Um, no, it's all the time. Literally anytime we go anywhere for an extended period of time."

"Yeah, including that one time we moved countries and you left one of your bags behind," Sam mocked from beside me, and I frowned.

Ten minutes later found us all gathered in the entrance hall of the grand house sorting our luggage out. Mrs Black's portrait was screaming but nobody bothered to pull the curtains closed- with the amount of noise we were making, there was no point.

"Harry, you're to come with Tonks and I," Mrs Weasley called over the continual screeches of "MUDBLOODS! FILTH! SCUM!" as she turned around to find said boy. "Leave your trunk and your owl, Alastor's going to deal with the luggage… oh for heaven's sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said _no_!"

I turned to see a bear like dog had appeared beside us, and I let out a cheer. "Hey! Sirius is coming with! This is a real party now!"

Sirius barked once at me, his tail wagging as Mrs Weasley sighed exasperatedly. "Well, on your own head be it!"

With that, she opened the door and let Harry and Sirius outside with her to walk to the train station that was about a twenty minute walk away, and Moody disappeared a moment later through the door with two trunks. I continued what I'd been doing before, which was helping Sam to fold all his clothes after he'd dragged his trunk down the stairs gaping open and unable to close due to his nasty habit of just throwing everything in with no organization. I swear to Merlin, this kid is going to be so lost without me next year, he can hardly even bloody feed himself (I'd never seriously complain about taking care of him, though; it was my second nature to do so for my brothers).

A moment later, Hermione, Ron and Mr Weasley left the house, just as Moody reappeared to ensure everything was on schedule before grabbing two more trunks and leaving the house again. This man is crazy strict with his schedule, let me tell you.

Lupin left a few moments later with Fred, George and Ginny, and soon Toby appeared at my side and grabbed what I was folding to throw it haphazardly in the trunk and snap it closed. "Oh, Toby!" I scolded, but it was just in time because at that moment Moody appeared and snatched Sam's and my trunks, muttering to himself about Sturgis Podmore and his schedule and then leaving the house again.

"Well, let's roll, then," Toby said cheerily, as my family all left the now empty house to stand on the front doorstep and Apparate to the train station.

The rest of our clan had already arrived and were waiting for us, and Moody immediately stepped forwards and demanded gruffly "No trouble?"

"Can't say we had any issues in the thirty seconds since we last saw you, Mad-Eye," Toby said, shrugging. Moody just continued muttering to himself. This dude is pretty much as unstable as the Death Eater parading as him last year.

"Well, look after yourselves," Lupin said, shaking hands all around. He let out a surprised "oof" when I knocked his hand away and threw my arms around him in a hug, but laughed to himself before returning it. If anyone in the world needs a hug, it's this dude.

"It's been really great meeting you all!" Tonks cried, throwing her own arms around me before moving on to Ginny and Hermione. "I'll be seeing you all soon, I expect!"

As soon as Tonks left me, arms wrapped around me from behind and Toby pulled my body to him in a bone crushing hug. He'd been acting all relaxed and chirpy all morning, but I'd known his more emotional nature would make an appearance eventually. "I'll miss you, baby sister," he said quietly, before reaching an arm out and grabbing Sam's collar from where he stood with his back facing us, roughly pulling him into the hug as I spun around to more properly return it. Choking slightly as he readjusted his collar, Sam soon more enthusiastically joined in. "I want you to write every week and tell me what's going on in your lives- _don't give me that usual 'I'm so busy' shit Samuel, I know you're just lazy!_- but be careful what you put in your letters. It sounds paranoid but you never know if it could be intercepted. If in doubt, don't put it in a letter at all."

I pulled away, nodding my agreement, before throwing myself at my Mom and then my Dad in turn. "Try to behave yourself, alright?" Dad asked. "I'll miss you. Don't forget to write!"

"Enjoy yourselves! I see you at Christmas!" Mom cried, and I hastily bid goodbye to Mr and Mrs Weasley and Moody.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, act more like a dog, Sirius!" I heard Mrs Weasley snap from behind me, and I turned to see Sirius standing on his hind legs with his front paws on a laughing Harry's shoulders. I leant down and held my hand out for a high five, which Sirius enthusiastically hit with his paw, before I giggled and threw my arms around his shaggy neck.

"I'll miss you," I said quietly into his fur, before he licked the side of my face and I stood up, and with one last wave goodbye I left them.

George bent and took my trunk from me, before he said "Go grab us a compartment, I'll dump these," before following his brother down the station after I nodded my assent.

I hoisted myself through the train doors before I heard my name screeched from somewhere. With a surprised gasp, I turned so suddenly I fell right back out the doors, my eyes clenching shut in anticipation of hitting the hard concrete. However, I never hit the ground, because strong arms caught me before I got close.

"Oh, thank you George!" I breathed out, immediately assuming it was the ginger haired boy. I mean, George was always the one to catch me or pick me back up when my clumsy nature got the better of me. However, his voice was not the one that greeted me.

"I don't know who this George fellow is, but you'll need to be more careful, love," a deep voice responded playfully, and I looked up to see the most handsome boy I'd ever laid eyes on. He was tanned with light brown hair and the most stunning pair of bright blue eyes, currently dancing with amusement at me. Carefully, he placed me back on my feet and I marveled at his apparent strength- he hadn't even flinched when he caught me.

"Oh," I stuttered stupidly, and his smile grew. "Um, wow, thank you. Sorry, I'm just really clumsy."

He laughed, "Don't apologize, love. Anything for a pretty girl like you."

Ducking my head to try and hide a blush, I smiled widely, extending my hand to him. "I'm Bree. I don't believe we've met before."

"I'd definitely remember if we had," he responded, extending his own hand to shake mine. "I'm Jason."

At that moment, I looked up and caught sight of Angelina, Katie and Lee both standing behind Jason, their jaws dropped as they watched our transaction. Following my line of sight, Jason noticed that we had an audience and smiled charmingly at the three of them before turning back to me. "I'll leave you to your friends, but hopefully I'll see you around school," he said, and I nodded a bit too enthusiastically.

"Definitely," I squeaked, before he turned and walked away from me. Katie was on me in a second.

"OH HEAVEN'S ABOVE THAT WAS THE MOST ROMANTIC THING I'VE EVER SEEN!" she squealed in such a high pitched tone it was nearly unintelligible, before turning back to the other two just as Angelina cried, "Oh, that one's going in the book!" Katie immediately began nodding her assent, but Lee ignored her in favour of throwing himself on me in a big hug, which the two girls soon joined.

"I've missed you three so much!" I cried, and they all nodded enthusiastically in agreement as the trains whistle blew, signalling we were about thirty seconds away from being left behind on the train station.

Lee pulled away and grabbed both mine and Katie's hands, pulling us onto the train, where we immediately collided with our favorite set of twins.

"So much for finding us a compartment, blondie," Fred scoffed, and Katie launched herself at the pair.

"She couldn't, she was too busy being swept off her feet by her future husband!" Angelina laughed, just as a door to our right opened.

Alicia stuck her head out, a wide smile on her face. "I thought I heard your voices," she giggled, as we all piled into the compartment.

For a moment, the compartment was filled with noise as everyone attempted to speak at the same time and several different conversations started, until Katie yelled "ENOUGH!" and everyone fell silent.

She smiled in satisfaction. "Now, let's do this in an orderly fashion. Also, I couldn't give a fuck about any of your holidays right now because Bree just met the man of all our combined fantasies."

Then, she turned, and everyone's attention fell to me.

"Wait, _what_ happened?" George asked quickly, his eyebrows furrowed, before Katie's hand shot up to cover his mouth as she waited for me to speak.

Rolling my eyes, I laughed "Katie, you three literally saw everything that happened."

Lee pulled his legs up underneath him and leant closer to me. "Um, do you not know who that was? That was Jason Dawes. _The_ Jason Dawes. Resident hottie of Hufflepuff House."

For a moment we all simply stared at him. "What?" he huffed, "I need to know my competition."

"You are no competition for that fine male specimen," Angelina sniggered. "Bree, you _literally_ fell for him."

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't have much of a choice after you lot scared the shit out me, shouting and all that." Suddenly, I remembered something, "Wait a second, Ang, what book were you talking about before?"

Angelina perked up slightly. "Oh! I'm writing a romance novel!"

"And by 'romance novel', she really means one of those sex novels," Lee elaborated, and I began to laugh.

"They're all the rage right now! And I need to find a way to support myself when school ends!" Angelina defended.

"So how exactly did the smut novel idea come about?" I queried, and Angelina grinned widely.

"I'm glad you asked that, Breezy!" she replied enthusiastically (George muttered a "here we go" before she started). "So as you all know I spent my holiday tanning it up in Barbados- which was absolutely fabulous by the way- beautiful scenery, but that's not the focus of my story! I met a man!"

Katie gasped in excitement. Fred was suddenly frowning in the most unbelievably jealous way.

"The most gorgeous man I ever did see swept me off my feet. It was like a romance novel, it was perfect. We met when I was tanning topless at the beach and- well, I think you can all guess where that situation led," she paused and winked overdramatically, and I rolled my eyes as Lee sniggered. "I mean, he was like the human form of a Greek God, he was absolutely gorgeous. I seriously considered staying in Barbados to marry him and have his beautiful children, but Mum would've kicked my arse if I dropped out of school. So my love story was cut short, and now I'm carrying out my needs through smutty fiction novels."

"Well," Lee answered, "if you ever need any inspiration for the sex scenes, I will readily offer myself to you in the name of research- OW!"

He shot Katie a glare after she kicked him in the shin. "Stop creeping, you did enough of that over the holidays," she said, rolling her eyes, before beginning to elaborate her story for us. "We went to my Aunt's house for her 50th birthday and ended up spending like three weeks there with my family. This kid is unbelievable, one minute he's charming my father so much, Dad actually says to me '_Katie, I think this boy is fine Bell marriage material'_, and not even an hour later he's disappeared with two girls he's just met and doesn't reappear for, like, six hours."

"ARE YOU STILL MAD ABOUT THAT?!" Lee cried, gaping at her. "I said I was sorry!"

Katie leant forwards so far to punch him I had to grab onto her arm to pull her back from toppling out of her seat. "YOU DITCHED ME IN THE MIDDLE OF A FOREIGN TOWN FOR SIX HOURS! OF COURSE I'M STILL MAD ABOUT THAT, YOU BASTARD!"

"It was one time!" Lee groaned.

"Um, it was more than one time!" Katie scoffed.

Lee pouted for a moment, before grinning. "We did have a pretty good time overall, though… remember when that guy started hitting on you and I-"

Katie was giggling before he even finished the story, and they began conversing about a series of situations I had no idea about. Aggression back to best friends in 0.5 seconds… I'll never understand those two.

"So what did the rest of you get up to?" Angelina asked interestedly.

Alicia groaned. "It was terrible, my crazy Uncle came to stay and I got put in charge of entertaining him. All your holidays beat mine by a long shot."

We all groaned sympathetically. We'd heard stories of Crazy Uncle Al.

"Well, I'm not writing a smut novel, didn't get romanced on the beaches of Barbados, and didn't have any interesting adventures that, from what I can gather, include performing illegal magic on a muggle," I summed up. "More of rainy old England for me, but at least I spent it with the Weasley's," I added, more in sympathy for Alicia.

Fred sniggered, "yeah, I got to watch this chick totally embarrassing herself all summer, it was great."

"Oh, hey! I met Remus Lupin, though!" I added with a grin, ignoring Fred's comment. "He was lovely, he told me to say hello to you, Katie."

Katie grinned. "Ah, good ol' Lupin. He was a ball of laughs when we had him as a teacher. Totally hot, too. Like, I know he was a teacher and everything, but I totally would've gone there."

Lee nodded his agreement.

* * *

><p>Arriving at school could not come fast enough. After the twins had informed the group that their joke shop plans were progressing better than ever, Lee had decided it was a great time to start talking about the details of his sexual conquests. It was uncomfortable for everyone… except Lee, who somehow could never take a hint that we didn't want to hear his stories, even when we said it directly to his face.<p>

It was a fine night when we arrived at the station platform, and unlike last year there weren't any setbacks for us reaching the school (namely, Peeves). The Entrance Hall was buzzing with activity as everyone slowly filed into the Great Hall, filling up the four long house tables. I spotted my brother and skipped down the row to plonk myself down next to him. He sat beside Ron and a sweet boy called Neville, and across from Hermione and Harry, who thus far had been trying his hardest to keep his head down and not make eye contact with anyone. I soon realized why he was acting so antisocially; a large amount of people were turning to stare at him, even whispering to their friends, and weren't making any effort at all to be conspicuous about it.

"Hey there!" Katie chirped happily as she and the rest of the group joined us. "Little Montero, Prefect Ronnikins, Prefect Hermy, and the Boy Who Lived, what's new with you guys?"

Totally ignoring Katie's greeting, the four of them continued scanning the staff table. Following their line of vision, I noticed that a certain gigantic figure was missing. I would have spared it a second thought if Harry hadn't gasped loudly at that moment, drawing all our attention.

"It's that Umbridge woman!" he cried, and everyone merely stared at him.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Lee eventually asked.

"She was at my hearing! She works for Fudge!" he reiterated, pointing up at the staff table. I looked up and saw a squat woman with curly brown hair and rather toadlike features. She was also wearing the largest amount of pink I'd ever seen on one person; a fluffy pink cardigan that matched a large bow in her hair, and a tight pink dress a slightly lighter color than the rest. Katie choked on her drink as she caught sight of the woman.

"Nice cardigan," Ron said, smirking, as Katie sniggered.

"I wonder what she's doing here," Lee said breezily, eyeing the empty table sadly, looking like he was begging the food to appear.

At that moment, the chatter in the hall died down as the doors to the Entrance Hall opened and the first years entered, looking absolutely terrified as the approached the front of the Hall. McGonagall led them, looking as harsh as ever as she placed a stool at the front of the Hall with the frayed school Sorting Hat on it. She backed away just as Lee's stomach growled loudly and he flopped his head down on the desk, already bored and the Hat hadn't even began his song yet.

"We get it! We're all different, like the four Founders, but we should get along anyway because the Hat is all knowing, yadda yadda yadda…" he muttered in annoyance. "Get me my damn food already…"

However, when the Hat opened his mouth, his song wasn't exactly what Lee had assumed. The beginning detailed the four Founders as Lee had predicted, but the second half strayed.

_"I sort you into Houses,_

_Because that is what I'm for,_

_But this year I'll go further,_

_Listen closely to my song:_

_Though condemned I am to split you_

_Still I worry that it's wrong,_

_Though I must fulfill my duty_

_And must quarter every year_

_Still I wonder whether Sorting_

_May not bring the end I fear._

_Oh, I know the perils, read the signs,_

_The warning history shows,_

_For our Hogwarts is in danger_

_From external, deadly foes_

_And we must unite inside her_

_Or we'll crumble from within_

_I have told you, I have warned you…_

_Let the Sorting now begin."_

For a moment, the Hall was silent. Dumbledore began the applause that everyone soon joined in, but it was rather halfhearted.

"…branched out a bit this year, hasn't it?" George eventually asked nervously.

Before anyone could respond, Lee jumped in.

"How exactly can a ripped up old Hat read signs?"

I rolled my eyes as Angelina demanded, "is that really all you got from that song? I mean, I don't think it's a normal thing for the Hat to hand out warnings of future perils."

Lee, however, completely ignored her. He looked like he was having a life changing revelation. "Oh my God, what does the Hat even do all year? I mean, I know he talks, but what if he has a _personality_? Does he have Hat friends? Does he have a Hat girlfriend? What are his Hat hobbies? Maybe he stargazes… maybe he and Trelawney have nice old chats about the position of Venus in relation to oncoming perils."

Nobody bothered responding to him, and McGonagall stood and began the Sorting before Lee's hunger driven ramblings got any weirder than they already had.

It was a slow process, with the line of first years seemingly unshrinking. Lee muttered to himself the whole time about his hunger and about the Hat, until eventually 'Zeller, Rose' was sorted into Hufflepuff, and the food appeared before us (Lee let out an excited gasp and pulled three platters closer to his plate). Dinner at Hogwarts, as always, was a cheerful affair. Nearly Headless Nick dropped in at one point and Hermione promptly asked him about the Hat's song, but he didn't really have much to offer on the topic. Soon enough, the food disappeared, and Dumbledore stood to deliver his speech.

"Now that we've all digested another magnificent meal, I beg a few moments for some announcements. Firstly, we have two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; and we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was a round of mostly unenthused applause as I leant over the table to whisper "Whose Grubbly-Plank? Does anyone know where Hagrid is?"

They all shook their heads, Hermione looking more concerned than anyone else, as Dumbledore continued speaking.

"Tryouts for the House Quidditch Teams will take place on the-"

"_Ahem."_

Lee choked on his pumpkin juice as Umbridge got to her feet, clearly intending to make a speech. Nobody interrupted Dumbledore- _nobody_.

Dumbledore looked totally taken aback, but recovered after a moment. He smiled politely at her and sat down, looking as though listening to her speech was the most desirable thing in the world. A quick glance around the staff table showed that the others weren't so adept at masking their surprise. McGonagall's lips were pursed into a thin line, Snape was actually paying attention for once, and Sprout's mouth had dropped open as Umbridge stepped forwards, a simpering sort of smile on her face.

"Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome," she said. Her voice was ridiculously high pitched and girlish. It kind of suited all the pink, though. "It is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, and to see such happy faces smiling up at me!"

A quick glance around me revealed that absolutely nobody was smiling up at her.

"I'm very much looking forwards to getting to know you all. I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"

Fred and George glanced at each other and simultaneously muttered sarcastically "That's likely," just loud enough for her to shoot a small glare over at us as I ducked my head to hide my laughter.

When she spoke again, she sounded much more business-like, as though she'd rehearsed this speech far too many times to count. "The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching."

Umbridge paused here, turning to bow slightly to her fellow teachers. None of them bowed back. McGonagall turned to share a loaded glance with Sprout, and Snape just kind of looked like a bitchy teenager as he stared her down.

"Each headmaster has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. But then again… progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us merely preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected, and prune practices that ought to be prohibited… our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering, for some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognized as errors of judgment."

She sat down and Dumbledore began applauding. By the end of her speech, it appeared I was one of very few who was still listening- and what I had heard, I didn't like.

"What was that rubbish?" Ron demanded.

"That was about the dullest thing I've ever heard, and that's saying something, because I grew up with Percy," George said.

For a moment, we all stayed silent as Dumbledore continued his speech. Then, very quietly, Hermione turned and said, "It means that the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts."

There was a loud clattering and banging all around us as Dumbledore dismissed us and students began standing to leave the Hall. Hermione shot to her feet, looking flustered.

"Ron, hurry! We've got to show the first years where to go!"

Groaning, Ron stood and followed her down the row, as she called out "First years this way!"

A group of new students walked shyly up the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. A few of them caught sight of Harry and looked suddenly petrified, as one turned to whisper frantically in his friends ear and outright pointed at the fifth year. Harry's smile slowly fell from his face as Sam shot a glare at the first years.

"Oi, you lot! Keep it moving!" he snapped in annoyance, and they all looked away quickly, speeding up their pace so much that one boy tripped over his new robes.

Katie sniggered after him. "Ooh, Sam, I had no idea you were such a tough man. What a turn on," she teased, and I rolled my eyes as we stood to leave the Hall. I lost sight of Harry and Sam within seconds in the huge crowd as we made our way up to the common room.

The Fat Lady hadn't changed a bit. She was still wearing her ugly pink dress and singing horribly off key as she swung forwards for us to enter. Katie ushered a bunch of second years off of the couches in front of the fire and flopped down with a tired sigh, but Angelina suddenly looked as excited as she had when she was talking about her sex novel.

"Guys! Look!" she cried, reaching into her pocket and pulling out what looked like a badge. "I totally forgot before- I've been made Quidditch captain!"

I gasped excitedly and jumped up to hug her. "Congratulations!"

"This is wonderful!" Alicia cried. "You'll do such a fantastic job!"

Angelina grinned proudly as I pulled away from her, flopping down on one of the nearby chairs. "Thanks, you lot. Oliver Wood mailed me all his old strategy notes," she rolled her eyes playfully as Fred and George began talking tactics with her. I knew they were all desperate to get out on the pitch after last year's break from Quidditch in favor of the Tournament.

I was just relaxing against the arm of the couch when there was a commotion from behind me.

"Don't you dare have a go at my Mother!"

I spun around in my seat to see Seamus glaring at Harry in the other corner of the room. The common room fell silent to watch how this progressed.

"I'll have a go at anyone who calls me a liar!" Harry snapped back, and Seamus fell silent for a moment.

"It's just- nobody was there the night Cedric died- if you could just tell us what happened-"

"Well, why don't you go and read the Prophet, then? It'll tell you everything you need to know!"

Harry was looking angrier by the second as Ron entered the common room through the Fat Lady's portrait. Immediately sensing something was happening, he approached his friends. "What's going on?"

"He's barking mad is what's wrong!" Seamus snapped, glancing around the common room as though looking for backup, and Ron simply gaped in surprise at his friend as Harry clenched his fists by his sides. Sensing that the situation was clearly deteriorating, I shot to my feet without properly thinking it through.

"Hey!" I snapped as I approached them. "He doesn't have to prove himself to you!"

Seamus scoffed. "Come on Bree, you can't possibly believe all the crap he's spouting off about You-Know-Who! Just tell us what really happened in the maze, Potter!"

"Actually, we do believe him, because it's the truth. Now back off, Seamus!" I said forcefully.

Seamus gaped for a moment, his eyes darting between Ron and I. "Well if you believe him, then you're mad, too!"

"Yeah?" Ron demanded, apparently rediscovering his backbone. "Well unfortunately for you, pal, that makes me a mad _prefect._ So unless you're gunning for a detention on the first day back at school, you'd better watch your mouth and be a bit more polite!"

For a moment, Seamus looked as though detention would be a reasonable price for saying what was on his mind. And eventually, this won out. "Oh come on, it's not just him! Our headmaster's been sacked from the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards because he's lost his marbles and is spouting off all this crap about You-Know-Who!"

At that point, the last person I ever expected to speak up made his voice heard. Neville stood and said surprisingly firmly, "If Dumbledore says he's back, then he's back. That's all there is to it."

Seamus merely gaped at the three of us standing beside Harry for a moment, before with a huff of anger he turned on his heel and marched out of the common room.

Silence followed his retreat, until Ron turned and said loudly. "Has anyone else got a problem they'd like to get off their chest?"

When the silence continued, the three fifth years turned and left for their dormitories. Harry didn't say a word or even make eye contact with me before he left. Not feeling very sociable all of a sudden, I turned and left for my own dormitory, ignoring the stares of my friends I could feel on my back.

I knew that the Ministry was causing trouble and the Daily Prophet had been publishing their lies, but for some reason it had never really hit me that when I returned to school, there would be a clearly visible line dividing us all. There were the people who believed You-Know-Who was back, and those who didn't- and from what I gathered so far, there were more people on the wrong side of that line. With their naivety came an almost certain danger. With the masses in disbelief over his return, You-Know-Who was free to carry out his plans without any trouble, and I knew from the history books how that ended last time… total chaos and massacre. And so, I promised myself then, that no matter what it took I was going to spread the word about his return in whatever ways possible. I wasn't going to leave these people I called my friends totally unprotected, because the best way to protect yourself is to know what you're up against.

* * *

><p><em>GALLONS OF GALLEONS!<em>

_Pocket money failing to keep pace with your outgoings? _

_Like to earn a little extra gold?_

_Contact Fred and George Weasley, Gryffindor common room,_

_For simple, part time, virtually painless jobs._

_(We regret that all work is undertaken by applicants own risk.)_

"Ah, seen the advert, have you?"

I turned away from the Gryffindor common room noticeboard to see George standing behind me, grinning appreciatively at his own handiwork on the poster (which was covering up a number of important notices).

I hummed my acknowledgement as I hitched my bag further up on my shoulder. "I see you two aren't wasting any time- straight into business."

"We're not wasting our last year here," George said motioning for me to walk out of the common room ahead of him, and soon we were headed to breakfast. "We're going to use it to do a bit of market research to find out exactly what the average Hogwarts student wants from a joke shop, carefully evaluate the results of our research, and then produce products to fit the demand."

"That's a smart business move, Georgie, but what about the 'virtually harmless jobs'?" I quoted.

"We need more test subjects! The products are still glitching and we need to see if the products react differently to different people. I mean, we've only been able to test on ourselves so far," he replied. It was true; all holidays the boys had been their own test subjects, and their Skiving Snackboxes failed more than they worked. I mean, the Nosebleed Nougat gave you a nosebleed just like it was meant to, but the half of the pill meant to stop it was pretty ineffective. Mrs Weasley thought they'd been dueling. I decided after the first time Fred fainted from blood loss that I wouldn't be one of their test subjects.

"And will you be pausing your market research at any point to get the education Hogwarts is offering to you?" I asked teasingly, and he simply grinned at me.

The first day back at school was not the relaxing, smooth introduction to a hopefully easy seventh year that I was hoping for. By lunchtime, Trelawney had assigned us to keep a month long dream diary, Flitwick had set a foot and a half essay on theoretical charms magic, and we'd only gotten off with no homework from Snape because a Slytherin boy had brewed his potion so totally wrong we all had to evacuate the dungeons as a fire broke out from the cauldron.

Angelina and Lee whined about our workload all throughout lunch; Alicia spent her lunch actually doing the work; I drowned my sorrows in the damn good pie I ate; Fred and George didn't seem to care at all. And so before I knew it, it was time for our first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Umbridge.

I was unsure what to expect. From what I can gather, Hogwarts track record of teachers in this position was pretty damn poor, but I'm nothing if not an optimist, so I entered the classroom with a wide smile on my face and a hopeful attitude. The class was mostly silent as we all filed in, the majority of people still unsure of what her attitude was and waiting to see if she was easy to anger.

I gotta say though, she didn't seem like much of a threat. The pink was a bit overwhelming, but she was tinier than I was and was wearing a smile before we'd all sat down yet.

"Well, good afternoon!" she said cheerily when we'd all sat down, to which the response was the usual unenthused mumblings from the class.

"Tut, tut, that won't do, will it?" she said. "I should like you to please reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge'. One more time, then. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," we chanted back, and I had to hide a smile when I noticed the twins already looking immeasurably bored. So she was formal, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

She looked extremely pleased. "There, now! That wasn't so difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out please."

Oh, no- that order was never followed by an exciting class. Cheerfully ignoring the upset groaning from most of the class, Umbridge tapped the blackboard with her wand, and words began to form there.

_Defense Against the Dark Arts: A return to basic principles _

She turned back to face us with a wide smile- a wide, fake smile. "Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. The constant changing of teachers, many of whom seem to have had very poor teaching methods, has resulted in you being unfortunately below the expected standard of NEWT students. But never fear!"

"I wasn't," I heard Angelina mutter as she began to doodle on her textbook, and Umbridge continued talking.

"You will all be pleased to know that these problems are soon to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory based, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year."

Angelina's hand froze in the middle of her drawing of what looked like a turtle with wings. "Theory based?" she repeated quietly, turning to look at me.

"Copy this down, please!" she said, turning and tapping the blackboard again, and more words replaced the original lot.

_Course Aims:  
><em>_1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic  
><em>_2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used  
><em>_3. Placing the use of defensive magic in context for practical use_

After a moment, everyone had copied the course aims down, bar the Weasley twins, who apparently had already given up on their schoolwork for the term, and surprisingly, Angelina. Angelina had stopped doodling on her parchment and was squinting at the course aims as though she couldn't read them.

"Now, has everybody got a copy of _Defensive Magical Theory_, by Wilbert Slinkhard?" Umbridge asked, and once the majority of the class had nodded unenthusiastically, she continued, "Very good, I shall like you to turn to page five and read chapter one: Basics for Beginners."

"We're in our seventh year, the fuck does she mean '_beginners_'?" Angelina muttered, cutting herself off when Umbridge cleared her throat.

"There will be no need to talk," Umbridge said flatly, staring at Angelina and I until we both turned to look down at our books.

Now I, personally, am a fan of books. I love to read. I love to read all sorts of books! I read _Hogwarts: A History_ for fun last year, for Merlin's sakes. I'm_ that_ much of a book lover that I literally read a textbook for fun. Not the first time I've done that, either.

So that being said… Defensive Magical Theory was the most boring thing I've ever read. In my entire life. If I believed in reincarnation and had previously had a thousand lives before this one, this book would still be the most boring I've ever read in all one thousand of those lives.

I barely made it through the first paragraph before I began trying to find other ways to entertain myself. In the end I began poking Lee from where I sat behind him and watching in amusement as he kept looking around the room as though searching for a ghost to be the perpetrator. Next to me, George was staring out the window, his eyes glazed over, and Fred had his head resting on his book, which he had never even bothered opening. Turning slightly, I caught sight of Angelina and did a double take in surprise. Her book was closed and her hand was in the air.

Umbridge eventually noticed her and came to stand beside our desk. "Yes, dear?" she whispered, obviously trying not to disturb the rest of the class. Her attempt was futile; as soon as she'd opened her mouth, the rest of the class was staring at her, searching desperately for any distraction from the tedious reading task. "Do you have a question?"

"Yes, I do," Angelina said, not bothering to keep her voice down. "There's nothing in this book or in your aims about actually _using_ defensive magic- it's all talking about theoretical approaches. When in this unit will we be starting the practical side of the class?"

Umbridge let out a small girlish giggle. "And what is your name?"

"Angelina Johnson."

"Well, Miss Johnson, I don't see why you would ever need to use defensive magic in my classroom! Surely you aren't expecting to be attacked here! Now, please return to your reading."

Angelina's jaw had dropped open and she looked too shocked to argue with Umbridge as the woman turned and returned to her desk at the front of the room.

"Are you saying that in a class about defensive magic… we won't actually be using defensive magic?" Lee asked, his voice oozing with both his disbelief and how stupid he clearly thought this idea was. "No, let me rephrase: in a _magical _school, we won't actually be using any _magic_?"

Umbridge shot him a small glare, but otherwise said nothing but "students will raise their hands in my classroom if they would like to speak."

Lee slowly and very sarcastically raised his hand, but he didn't need to ask again, because Umbridge, realizing that nobody was going to go back to their reading until she spoke, answered his question- in a sort of roundabout way.

"You will be learning about defensive magic in a secure, risk free environment. It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination- which, after all, is what school is about. Now, please return to your reading."

With absolutely no regard to Umbridge, Lee turned his back to her, to face us where we sat behind him, asking, "Is this really happening? Or am I having a nightmare?"

Before Umbridge could scold him, and she looked very much as though she would like to, Fred spoke. "Isn't there a practical section of our NEWT's?"

"Yeah… Aren't we meant to show the examiners we can actually perform the spells?" George added.

"Hands up, please, gentlemen!" Umbridge scolded. "And as I have already stated, the Ministry believes that a theoretical knowledge will be extensive enough. As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason as to why you should not be able to perform the spells in your examination."

Was this woman actually suggesting that she wanted us to go into our exams blind? That the first time we would be performing complex spells would be when we would be marked on them? I've never heard anything more preposterous in my life. Theory was all well and good, but actually applying the theory into a practical approach could take weeks to master depending on the complexity of the magic.

However, based on her smile, I gathered that she was completely serious.

Lee's mouth had dropped open again, but before anyone could object, the bell rang. For once, nobody moved. We were all too busy still staring at her in both wonder and horror. Umbridge, however, had turned her back and was returning to her desk.

"I shall like all of you to finish reading chapter one before our next class. Good day."

I took Lee's arm and pulled him out of his seat as the rest of the class filed out and he made no movement, simply continuing to stare at the teacher. His disbelief was mirrored on all of our faces- in our final year of schooling, we wouldn't be learning the material to get us through our exams. At a time where it was the most crucial for us to be able to defend ourselves from the dark arts, we would not be learning to.

I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'd prefer Mad-Eye Moody's imposter to continue using Unforgiveable curses on us over what we had in store for us this year.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm really looking forward to exploring Umbridge's character in the next few chapters. And you've all met Jason! <strong>

**Come Christmas time in this story, things will start to get really interesting for Bree and the others, both in school and out. Get keen!**

**Also, a large portion of this chapter comes from the book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	19. Dolores Umbridge Has Some Serious Issues

It had happened. I knew it was inevitable, but that didn't lessen the blow any.

My baby brother, Samuel Montero, had had another growth spurt. He was officially taller than me.

I was barely holding back tears.

"You're just growing up so fast!" I exclaimed, choking up a little as I threw my arms around him in a big hug. Sam looked completely embarrassed.

"Here's the funny thing, Bree, age works the same for everyone," he said smartly. "So when you age a year, so do I."

Still hugging him, I reached my hand up to smack the back of his head.

"This isn't fair! You're the youngest! Youngest means shortest!" I cried.

"Well, in his defense, you are abnormally tiny," Lee lazily spoke up from where he sat with Katie, Harry, Hermione, and Ron, watching the exchange in amusement. "What are you now, three feet tall?"

I turned to shoot him a glare, which Sam used as the perfect opportunity to escape my arms. "Very funny," I snapped at Lee, and he merely shrugged as though agreeing with my assessment.

The others laughed at our exchange, but not Hermione. The bushy haired girl, I noticed, had her eyes firmly planted on Fred and George, who sat in the center of the common room surrounded by a group of first years. George, I soon noticed, was currently handing out what looked like candy to the children. They swallowed the treats, and then one by one they slumped to the floor, unconscious.

It was a pretty amusing sight to see most of them falling off of their chairs and sprawling out at odd angles, so I let out a small giggle until I heard Hermione snap "No, this is it! They've gone too far! Come on, Ron!"

Ron looked absolutely horrified at the thought of confronting his brothers. "Oh, no, Hermione, leave them be!" he begged desperately, trying and failing to sound calm. "We can't get angry at them for handing out sweets!"

Hermione spun to glare at him. "You know very well that those are pieces of- of Nosebleed Nougat- or Puking Pastilles-"

"Nope, those are definitely Fainting Fancies," I supplied helpfully, still watching as the twins observed the first years and made notes on clipboards.

"Fainting Fancies," Hermione muttered to herself, before standing straight and marching over to them.

Ron made to get up from his chair, glanced over at his brothers, then flopped back down and muttered "She's got it under control," before sinking as low down in his chair as he could go.

Lee snorted. "Good to see you didn't lose your backbone over the holidays, then."

The twins didn't immediately notice Hermione standing behind them, until she put on her Prefect voice and began to speak. "That's enough!" she snapped, and the twins turned lazily to glance up at her.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," George mused, glancing back down at the unconscious students as a first year walked along them and inserted another piece of candy into their mouths, "this dosage looks strong enough, doesn't it?"

"I told you two this morning, you can't test this rubbish on students!"

"We're paying them!" Fred said indignantly, as the first years began to wake up, all of them looking confused as to how they ended up on the ground. Yeah, they may have been paying them, but I feel they would have been extremely vague on the job details.

"It could be dangerous!" Hermione argued, and Fred rolled his eyes.

"Calm down, Hermione, they're fine," Fred said reassuringly. "They're waking up already."

George turned to a small, dark haired girl. "Do you feel alright?" he asked kindly, and she nodded hesitantly.

"I-I think so…" she mumbled, and George was about to make a note on his clipboard when Hermione snatched it straight out of his hands, along with the bag of Fainting Fancies.

"Oi!" George snapped, "Quit being such a buzzkill! We tested them all on ourselves before anyone else! And look, they're all still alive, aren't they?!"

"If you don't stop this, I'm going to-"

"What?" Fred grinned in sudden amusement, "Put us in detention?"

"Make us write lines?" George laughed, the both of them wearing identical looks telling her they dared her to try.

From beside me, Sam began to snigger, as did the majority of the people viewing this display. Hermione narrowed her eyes and drew herself up to her full height.

"No, I won't," she said quietly, her voice deadly serious. "But I will write to your mother."

From beside me, Lee gasped. My eyes had widened as I watched. Oh, that was a damn low blow.

The twins had drawn back from her, looking completely horrified. "You wouldn't!" George said, though he sounded unsure.

"Oh yes I would! I can't keep you from eating them yourselves, but you won't give them to anyone else to test out on!" Hermione said forcefully, with a look that said she knew she'd won. I was actually seeing Hermione in a new light after this; she was bloody terrifying when she wanted to be.

With one last glare, Fred snatched his clipboard and the bag of treats back from her, before stalking out of the Common Room. George followed closely behind him, only making a small detour to grab my wrist and pull me up off the couch and out of the Common Room, with Lee scrambling along behind us.

"Totally below the belt…" he was muttering as he pulled me down the Hall, "unbelievable…"

Lee and I stayed quiet, lagging behind the twins as they spoke angrily between them, until we had reached the ground floor and arrived at the entrance to the kitchens. As usual, the boys had to help pull me through the small gap, as I still wasn't tall enough to pull myself through (Sam was now, though. Cry). They managed to calm down somewhat then, because nobody could stay angry in the presence of our wonderful school house elves.

"Dobby!" I cried happily, spying the big eyed house elf amongst the others. In a second, he was by my side.

"Mistress Bree!" he cried, his ears flopping as he moved animatedly. "So good to see you again, it is!"

"Yeah, you too, man," I returned, sitting down at one of the four wooden tables that lay directly below the House tables above. Subconsciously, I'd moved towards the Gryffindor one. "How were your holidays?"

"Oh yes, very good! Dobby enjoyed it very much, Mistress! Dobby never had, what you call, 'holidays,' until recently! Dobby took Winky to Diagon Alley as Professor Dumbledore suggested, it was great fun!"

"Awesome!" I cheered. "You guys all work so hard, you deserve a bit of down time."

At the mention of work, Dobby straightened up. "Ah, it is what we love to do, Mistress! Now, can I get you anything?"

I scrunched up my face, considering, until George spoke up from where he sat across from me. "Can we get some of that cake from dessert? Ya know, the triple chocolate one?"

Dobby nodded excitedly, looking honored to be asked to fetch us some cake, before he scurried off. I turned back to my friends, and George shrugged at my questioning look.

"You were eyeing it off even after you demolished, like, three pieces of it," George said by way of explanation. "It was damn good."

I grinned up at him- he really does know me too well by now. I'd had to force myself away from that cake.

I tuned back into the conversation Lee and Fred were having then, only to hear Fred rant indignantly, "-and who the bloody hell does she think she is? Give her a prefect badge and suddenly she's the Queen of England, ordering around her subjects-"

"She was just doing her job," I defended idly, observing the house elves as they scurried around the room. "Just continue your testing in a more secretive manner. So long as she doesn't know what you're doing, you'll have no problems with her."

"Well, there's no bloody way she's stopping us from experimenting," Fred snapped in annoyance as Dobby returned with a very, very large plate of the chocolate cake. Oh, bless you, Dobby.

I thanked him enthusiastically as he set it down on the table and then presented us all with utensils. I immediately dug in, letting out a moan of pleasure as the cake hit my taste buds.

"Jeez, get a room," Lee said, and I merely smiled serenely, digging my fork back in.

"I would get a room with this cake, it's orgasmic. Lee, try some!" I demanded, but he merely shook his head as the twins continued arguing about Hermione's apparent overreaction.

"They aren't even dangerous," George said, and I scoffed.

"Correction: they're only dangerous to you because you test them out to separate the bad quality from the good quality. I was worried all holidays that you'd end up poisoning yourselves," I said, and the twins looked as though they were considering my statement, before simultaneously nodding their agreement. Lee, meanwhile, was staring down at the cake, a look of longing on his face.

"Lee, for God's sakes, will you just try some?!" I snapped, and he shook his head again.

"I'm dieting and upping my exercise regime. I can't break my bid for the perfect body just for some stupid cake," he said, though he still stared down at it as though he was imagining what it tasted like.

"We're only testing the Skiving Snackboxes on the first years is just to see whether it works the same on everyone," George continued, as though I hadn't spoken. "They aren't getting any of the nasty side effects we do."

"Ah, alas, the things we do due to our passion for the jokes," Fred sighed, about to put a forkful of cake in his mouth when Lee snatched the fork from his hands and shoved it in his own mouth.

"Oh- Lee!" he cried.

"I CAN RESIST ANYTHING BUT TEMPTATION!" he wailed, his mouth full of cake and muffling his words slightly. "Chocolate is like my cocaine! I can't give it up!"

I patted him on the shoulder comfortingly as he continued to shovel more of the cake into his mouth. And when we left the kitchen ten minutes later, he carried the plate with him back through the corridors.

We'd almost made it back to the Common Room when there was a shuffling noise ahead of us. The four of us froze totally as we listened, praying we'd all imagined the noise. But as we listened, the shuffling happened again, coming close enough for us to make out footsteps.

We all began looking around for an escape route, but we were in one of the only corridors in the school that didn't have any hidden passageways. So we turned and returned the way we'd come, jumping behind the wall just as the footsteps entered the corridor we'd just been in.

"Where are they, my precious?"

My breath hitched, hearing the worst possible voice imaginable: Argus Filch (to quote Lee directly, "this dude seriously gets off on punishing students").

George turned and brought his finger to his lips in a shushing motion, before turning to try and creep down the corridor. Lee, however, found it difficult to creep with the huge plate of cake still cradled in his arms, and put his foot down too hard, making a noise just loud enough to tip Filch off that we were there. At the sound of the old man hurrying down the hall towards us, we took off running around the corner.

"Up ahead!" Lee hissed, before lifting up a tapestry and throwing himself at the patch of wall behind it. He bounced back off of it, hitting the ground hard, dropping the plate in the process. "MY CAKE!"

"Forget the cake!" George hissed, lifting up the tapestry directly next to where Lee had just hit the wall and shoving me towards it. I gasped, bracing myself for the impact, but instead I fell straight through the wall and into the hidden corridor beyond. Lee appeared a second later, but before the twins could join us, Filch turned the corner and spotted them.

"AH!" I heard him yell from outside the barrier. "Out of bed, as usual! And not even a week back at school!"

Slowly, I pressed up against the fake wall, lifting the tapestry outside just enough for Lee and I to see the corridor outside, and the three males who stood there.

Fred shrugged carelessly, before motioning down at the spilt cake. "What can I say? Sometimes a guy just needs a good slice of chocolate cake."

"Hmmm… I'll have you in detention all week for this, boys!" Filch cried gleefully, and George groaned.

"Come on, Filch, I thought we'd be past this by now," he said lazily, and Filch glared at him before turning and motioning for them to follow him down the corridor.

As they walked away, he began muttering to himself. "Hmm… it's a shame they let the old punishments die," he mused. "There was a time when detention would see you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons for hours. I've still got the whips in my office, just in case. Lord, I miss the screaming…"

I turned to Lee to see his horrified expression perfectly matched my own. What a total psycho.

A moment later, when their footsteps had faded, Lee stepped out of the hidden corridor. For a moment, he merely stared down at his cake as though mourning the loss, before I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm, pulling him back towards the common room. One close call is plenty enough for me for one night.

* * *

><p><em>Dear Callie,<em>

_And so our seventh and final year of schooling starts. It's kind of exciting, but also really terrifying to think that after this year I'll actually have to make my own way in the world, not helped by the daily (sometimes hourly) talks from teachers telling us how important this year is for our futures. Bleh. Of course, despite this, I'm still leaving my assignments until the night before they're due to complete. Some things never change, I suppose._

_Things are different this year. After the whole debacle of last year we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge, who's pretty boring. She's laid out this entire course based on theory for the topic, as in zero practical work whatsoever. She actually works for the Ministry of Magic, and I think she's here to keep an eye on us. Either way, it's starting to get tedious reading from a book every lesson and having to try and teach myself the spells required for the exam. Apart from that, things are pretty damn similar to how they've always been. _

_Sam and I miss having you and James and the others around; it actually gets kind of lonely._

_Love, Breezy_

I finished off the letter and put my quill down, quickly rereading to see I hadn't missed anything before I signed my name at the bottom, just as the bell rang, signaling the end of my study period and the beginning of Defense Against the Dark Arts. With a sigh, I looked across the table at where Sam was doing his potions homework (or, trying to- he'd been staring at the same page in his textbook for about forty minutes), calling his name to grab his attention.

He jumped in surprise, apparently not having heard the bell, before looking up at me in confusion. I handed him the letter. "Can you mail this to Cal when you send your letter to Mom?"

"Yeah, of course. Did you tell her I said hi?" he asked, and I smiled, nodding.

"Of course," I answered, before standing and ruffling his hair before making my way down to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

When I got there, Angelina was already sitting at our table, glaring down at her open textbook. Before I'd even sat down, she'd already cried "I can't do this anymore!" and slammed it shut.

Hesitantly, I dropped my bag and slid into my seat, looking at her curiously. "What's up, Ang?"

"I can't do it anymore! This entire course is fucking ridiculous! For Merlin's sake, did you reach chapter ten yet?!"

"Er…" Truthfully, I hadn't even finished the second chapter yet. It was pretty tedious stuff. Rolling her eyes, Angelina continued without my answer.

"It's trying to teach me how to perform a spell without any practical work. It doesn't even want me to practice the wand movements- just focus on the spell! There's no possible way to actually learn like this!"

Her voice had gotten louder as she ranted, drawing the attention of the students already in the room, so I hastened to calm her.

"Look, Ang, I understand where you're coming from, but the fact is that you've just got to deal with it. You and I will practice the spells together tonight after dinner and in our study periods, and we'll have mastered them in no time. We don't need Umbridge; so just keep your head down and try not to make her angry. You won't gain anything from it," I said, and Angelina huffed.

"I suppose you're right," she sighed. "I just hate this… we shouldn't have to practice these spells in secret! She's meant to be teaching us, not hindering our learning!"

"I know," I agreed. "It's ridiculous, but I guess we just have to put up with her."

She nodded, just as the final bell rang and Lee, Alicia, Fred and George hurried into the room. Umbridge exited her office humming to herself, looking to be in a good mood.

"Wands away, thank you," she instructed with a smile, for the majority of the class had their wands out, looking hopeful that the first lesson of the second week might be miraculously different to the first week. "As we finished up chapter five last week, I should like you all to turn to page 65 and commence chapter six. There will be no need to talk."

Angelina grit her teeth as the majority of the class sighed. I flipped to page 12, intending to force myself to at least finish chapter one. I was doing quite well and had made it halfway through chapter two when I realized that Angelina was doing what I feared- she had her hand in the air and her book closed.

"_Angelina_," I hissed, but she ignored me. I should have known her legendary fiery temper would get the better of her. I hissed her name again. "Put your hand down!" I added, and she acknowledged me with an aggravated shake of her head.

Umbridge had noticed her by this point, and walked over to our table. "Yes, dear?" she whispered, bending slightly to hear Angelina's response.

"Professor Umbridge," Angelina politely began in a low voice, "I'm sorry, but I really must question the validity of a completely theoretical base. Isn't the entire purpose of this class to defend ourselves from the dark arts? How are we supposed to use a theoretical knowledge when we actually come across people intending to harm us with the dark arts?"

Though her voice was low, everyone in the class had heard her perfectly, and were turning to listen.

Umbridge surprised me by looking rather amused by Angelina, rather than offended. She giggled girlishly before asking, "And who, my dear, do you think is going to attack you in my classroom?"

"Well, I mean, not in this classroom- I mean outside of the classroom, in the real world. And any number of dark wizards could want to attack us for any number of reasons- isn't it best to be prepared?"

"Miss Johnson, I do acknowledge your concern, but there really is nothing to fear out there! The Ministry has been very proactive in monitoring potential threats and I can assure you that you are in no danger, both inside and outside of this classroom- in 'the real world'."

"How can you say that?" I'd spoken before even consciously making the decision to do so. My anger had grown through Umbridge's condescending exchange with Angelina, and my mind was running a mile a minute, my thoughts not quite catching up to my actions. "How can you possibly say that after what happened in June?"

The class had fallen completely silent as soon as I'd spoken- they all knew what I was referring to. Umbridge was staring down at me, a suddenly grim expression on her face, before turning slowly and walking to the front of the classroom. Once she reached her desk, she turned back around, looking determined. "I would like to make this quite plain," she said, her voice slow and calculated, as though considering her every word before she spoke. "You have all been informed that a certain Dark wizard has returned. _This is a lie_."

My jaw actually slackened enough to drop open slightly. I'd known that Umbridge was here to monitor us- but to so blatantly shove the Ministry's disbelief down our throat? I hadn't imagined this.

I swallowed thickly. "Then how did Cedric Diggory die?"

Umbridge maintained eye contact with me this time as she spoke. "Cedric Diggory's death was a very tragic accident in the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. I understand how hard his death has been on his classmates, but that's all it was- an accident."

"Cedric was murdered! Surely you must know this!" I burst out, unable to stop myself, but she interrupted me.

"That's enough!" she yelled, finally losing her cool. "Detention, Miss Montero! My office- six o'clock."

I shot to my feet, barely able to conceal my glare. I was about to continue arguing, until I felt George slip his hand into mine, squeezing it gently and attempting to pull me back down to sit. Squeezing his hand back, I was able to stop myself from yelling at her like I so desperately wanted to, but I didn't sit back down. I bent to pick up my bag before storming from the room.

I didn't pay attention to where I was going, merely allowing my feet to take random turns and take me wherever I ended up. My mind was racing, and I couldn't get my anger under control.

She knew. She had to know, and yet she had lied and said that Cedric's death was an accident anyway. He'd died, and we're still alive and doing nothing to make sure that nobody else dies needlessly. Dumbledore had been right- he'd said at the end of term that not acknowledging how Cedric had died was an insult to his memory. At this thought, I felt my eyes well up with hot tears, and I wiped them away hurriedly.

"Bree?"

Spinning, I saw Draco Malfoy. He was standing behind me, his bag slung over his shoulders and a pile of books in his arms as he exited the library, which I'd somehow ended up at. He was staring at me, his eyes softening when he saw my wet eyes. I hastily rubbed them dry again.

Instead of acknowledging the elephant in the room, I completely avoided it. "Hi, Draco!" I cried, my voice a fake happy chirp. "How are you?"

He ignored my question. For a moment, he stayed silent, as though weighing his options, before finally coming to a conclusion. "Are- are you okay?" he eventually asked hesitantly, and I nodded too quickly to be believable.

"Of course! Never better!" He took a step closer and crossed his arms, making it very apparent he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. "I just- everything's so wrong!" I finally burst out, dropping the act and wiping my eyes again.

I had a hunch that Draco had never in his life had to comfort someone before. He looked totally uncomfortable, but I could see in his gaze that despite not knowing what to do, he really wanted to help.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't burden other people with my problems," I apologized.

"I just- I'm not used to this whole 'comforting people' thing," Draco said, completely confirming my suspicions. "I don't know what to do. Do I hug you? Do I punch you? Do I slap your ass? I don't know, but please stop crying."

Surprised, I let out a laugh, and he looked glad. Who knew Draco actually had a funny bone? A laugh had been what I needed though.

"It's good to see you again, Draco," I said sincerely, and he nodded to return my sentiment. "How were your holidays?"

He shrugged, back to looking as awkward as he usually did. It was strange to me that after so long, he was still so anxious about talking to a Gryffindor, but I wasn't going to say anything; it was amazing how much he'd already opened up to me. I felt like I was really making progress with him.

"Rather boring, actually. I spent the majority of them with my friend Blaise or at home," he said simply. "How were yours?"

"Yeah, eventful. It was good to see my family again after spending the year around all you stuffy British kids," I replied. He didn't laugh at my joke. He looked really uncomfortable for some reason, like he was stopping himself from saying something, so I stayed quiet and waited- a method I'd already learnt worked when dealing with this kid.

Eventually, it did the trick. "Do you remember at the end of last term when you said that if I needed any help with Defense Against the Dark Arts… that- that you would help me?"

It took me a moment to rack my brain and remember that far back. Eventually, I recalled the situation, and nodded.

"Well… would you?"

"Would I what? Help you study?"

He nodded jerkily, and a surprised smile broke out on my face. "Oh, Draco, of course. It would be a pleasure to help you."

At that moment, the bell rang to signal the end of classes for the day. I turned back to Draco and said, "I have detention every night this week, so how about we meet here next Monday night? Does that work for you?"

He nodded before looking at me oddly. "_You?_ Detention? Really?"

Rolling my eyes, I shrugged before sending him a sarcastic wave and turning to enter the library. The library was mostly empty by now, but I found a couch at the very back of the room anyway, hoping for a bit of private time. I settled down and took my novel out with every intention to lose myself in the pages.

This lasted for about twenty minutes, when I heard footsteps hurriedly approaching me and looked up to see George.

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" he cried, breathless. "And Merlin, this place is even bigger than I remember. Why didn't I come here first? How did I forget you're a total book nerd?"

I raised my eyebrows and continued staring at him, waiting for him to make his point. He flopped down on the couch next to me, his face furrowed in concern, and asked "Are you alright?!"

Nodding, I tried to smile up at him. "I'm alright… I don't even know what happened, to be honest. I overreacted. I mean, I'd only just finished telling Angelina not to bitch out Umbridge when I did it myself."

"She's absolutely horrible! When you left the room it actually got worse. She giggled like making you leave was the highlight of her day and then made some big speech about how the Ministry was looking out for our best interests. She said that if we heard anyone spreading rumors of You-Know-Who's return, she wanted us to go straight to her and say something because she wants to be friends and help us, or something like that. It was the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard in my life. But don't worry," he added, his face lighting up, "Fred, Lee and I are already working on ways of testing our joke shop products on her for revenge."

I couldn't help but grin at that, but it soon fell away into a groan when I remembered what awaited me for the rest of the week. "Ugh, but now I have detention."

George rolled his eyes. "You're such a goody-goody. When was the last time you had a detention?"

"Well, I think it was during my fourth year at Walden. I was never a trouble maker until I met you and your brother, thank you very much!"

"Well, don't sweat it," he said, tugging a lock of my hair to get me to look up at him. "Detention is nothing, it's just writing lines, usually. Just get it done and don't argue anymore, despite how corrupted you think I've somehow made you."

He stood up then and extended his hand down for me to take. "Now come on! Its dinner time and I'm starved! Putting up with a hag like Umbridge really takes it out of you."

* * *

><p>At ten to six, I left the warmth of the Gryffindor common room to venture down to Umbridge's office on the third floor for my first detention. When I knocked on the door, she called "come in," in her usual sugary voice. I took a deep breath in before entering the office, where I immediately had to do a double take.<p>

Oh sweet Merlin help me.

The walls of the office had been draped in lacy covers and cloths, and over each wall hung a series of ornamental plates containing a kitten wearing a different bow around its neck. Every single thing in this room was pink except for the brown mahogany desk. What the fuck is with this woman and the color pink?!

Before I could gag, Umbridge spoke again. "Good evening, Miss Montero."

My eyes drifted towards her as I stepped into the office, trying not to let my face show my total disgust with my surroundings. "Good evening, Professor Umbridge," I replied, closing the door behind me just as I spotted a framed photograph of the Minister for Magic sitting beside her on her desk.

Okay, too creepy.

Umbridge stood and motioned to a small table and straight backed chair that laid in the corner of the room, and I quickly sat down, dropping my bag onto the floor beside me. A piece of blank parchment laid on the table, and I sighed. George was right then, it's only writing lines. I shuddered to think of the schoolwork awaiting me in the common room when I returned, but I suppose there was nothing I could do about it now.

"You are going to be doing some lines for me tonight, Miss Montero- oh, no-" she said, stopping me as I bent to get a quill from my bag, "-you'll be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are."

She handed me a long, thin black quill with a rather unusually sharp point. "I want you to write, _I will be respectful._"

I nodded obediently, trying to make this experience as painless as possible. "How many times?"

"Oh, well… I think as long as it takes to _sink in_," she said, smirking as though sharing an exceptionally funny private joke with herself.

She moved back to her desk and sat down, pulling a stack of papers closer to herself as I raised the sharp black quill above the paper. Slowly, I wrote_ 'I will be respectful.'_

The ink was a dark red, and as I continued onto the next line, I began to feel an itch on the back of my hand. I ignored it, until suddenly the light itch turned into a sharp pain. Gasping, I turned my hand over to watch in horror as slowly, the words_ 'I will be respectful'_ carved into the back of my hand. As I watched, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where the words had been slightly redder than usual but still quite smooth, but I couldn't shock the horrified pit that had appeared in my stomach.

The ink was writing the words with my own blood.

There must be a mistake- surely something like this wasn't legal, let alone for a simple detention after speaking out of turn. But as I turned to look up at Umbridge, I saw her already watching me, a sickeningly satisfied smile stretched across her ugly face, and I knew that this was no mistake.

"Yes?" she asked knowingly, and for a moment I continued to stare at her.

Then, I shook my head, turning back to the parchment. "Nothing," I whispered, wincing in anticipation of the pain as I put the quill down again.

_I will be respectful._

_I will be respectful._

_I will be respectful._

Again and again I wrote the words down, and again and again I felt the searing pain on the back of my hand, only for the words to heal back over again before the next time I set my quill down. It felt like hours that this continued as I slowly watched darkness fall outside the window, but I didn't dare ask her when I would be allowed to leave. I didn't even want to look at her- I could feel her eyes on me, like she was watching for outward signs of my pain, of any weakness, and I clenched my teeth, refusing to give her any, no matter how much I was hurting.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, she stopped me. She snapped her fingers, like calling a dog, before saying, "Show me your hand."

I slowly stood and moved over to the desk. The back of my hand was stinging painfully, and I looked down to see that although the cuts had continued healing, the skin there was red raw.

She took my hand when I extended it and deliberately pressed down on the raw skin with her thick fingers. I barely repressed my gasp of pain, and she hummed cheerfully.

"I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet- I suppose we'll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won't we? You may go," she said, smiling the whole time. I let out a breath, staring at her in horror, before slowly pulling my hand away from her and, still unwilling to show any signs of weakness, barely refrained from cradling my hand to my chest.

I left her office without a word, only pausing to glance up at the clock that had been behind where I was sitting to see that it was nearing eleven o'clock- she'd kept me here, carving into my own hand, for nearly five hours. I barely suppressed the urge to slam her door behind me as I exited, breaking into a run as soon as the door had shut.

The common room was empty when I arrived there, and though I knew I'd regret it in the morning, I decided to leave my homework until tomorrow- my hand was aching too much to sit down and write with it.

* * *

><p>Seventh year was far more difficult than I had imagined: by the third night of my detention, I had fallen behind in every single one of my subjects. It was looking more and more likely that my entire weekend would be spent in the library with little to no sleep trying to catch up. McGonagall had commented on my lack of progress in vanishing spells, and Katie had eventually taken pity on me and taken over doing my dream diary for Divination (mostly she just used her own dreams and then added some form of dinosaur to the fray- Trelawney had made a comment about how insightful my dreams were).<p>

Umbridge kept me for five hours every night. This, in my opinion, seemed to be a lot of time considering the simplicity of my transgression- merely speaking out of turn. Not only that, but frankly I was kind of scared to speak out in class again due to the severity of the punishment. By the end of the third night, the skin on my hand was no longer healing over, leaving the words _'I will be respectful'_ carved as clear as day.

Instead of dwelling on the pain during my detentions, I tried to keep my mind elsewhere. This led to me finally coming to the conclusion that Umbridge wasn't punishing me for speaking out of turn, but for speaking about You-Know-Who. The Ministry weren't just being negligent, they were consciously acting to stop these rumors from spreading any more than they already had. And Umbridge herself was taking a little bit too much pleasure in stopping me from speaking for my liking.

She seemed surprised, but as the week continued, I still refused to show her the weakness she was looking for. Despite the pain, my face remained passive and I refused to flinch, even when my skin stopped healing over. I hadn't told anybody about what was happening to me. It felt too much like letting her win this sick, twisted game she'd begun if I said anything. Instead, I hid my hand as much as possible, and my friends were under the impression that the only thing wrong was how little sleep and homework I was doing.

My mood drastically improved on Thursday morning when the post arrived during breakfast. I looked up from my Transfiguration essay just as a tawny owl dropped a letter in front of me, with my name scrawled across the front in Callie's familiar messy writing. I was surprised by how quickly she'd gotten back to me- Callie usually either forgot or procrastinated everything to the point of ridiculousness. Eagerly, I tore open the letter, but my smile soon faded from my face when I saw what was inside.

_Bree,_

_I want to hear more about this Umbridge woman from the Ministry! That's so strange that you're not even learning magic, but things are strange here too, actually. __After disappearing straight after the third task, Zira reappeared just in time for the new school term to start. There's been zero explanation as to where she disappeared to, and even the teachers are surprised to see her back. She's harsher than she's ever been before, and I never even thought that was possible._

_Based off of what previous seventh graders have said, I expected this year's course load to be heavy, but manageable. This is not the case. It's strange- Zira changed up the curriculum of every single class. We're learning the theories behind darker magic than I've ever seen before. The teachers don't know anything about it; they seem a bit put off by it all, but what can they really do? They have to teach us what she says. _

_Something feels weird... but, apart from that, we're surviving the course load as best we can and trying to come to terms with the fact that at the end of this year, we'll need to do something with our lives. James is still totally dead set on becoming a professional model (of course)._

_Love, Cal_

The distress must have been showing on my face, because Sam leant over the table and, his voice full of concern, asked, "What is it?"

Wordlessly, I handed him the letter, where George and Katie leant in to read over his shoulder.

"Zira's back? Isn't that the Walden Headmaster who disappeared with Karkaroff?" Katie inquired.

I nodded, and then turned to where Hermione sat a few seats down from me. She turned when I called her name, and I asked, "Has Viktor said anything about Karkaroff since he disappeared?"

Looking confused, Hermione shook her head. "No, I don't think anybody's heard from him. Viktor says they have a new headmaster now."

"So, what?" George asked. "Does that mean that they didn't leave together after all?"

I shook my head. "They disappeared at the exact same time; that's far too coincidental. I think they left together."

"Well then, why is Zira back so suddenly?" Sam wondered. "And, better question- why isn't Karkaroff?"

I merely shook my head, since it was apparent that none of us knew the answer to that. As we went back to eating, I silently agreed with Callie: something feels really, really weird- not just here in England, but back in America, too.


	20. The Hogwarts High Inquisitor?

My seventh and final year of school took a very sharp turn for the worst in my second week back. My detentions continued as they had begun- Umbridge and I would not speak throughout the evenings we spent together apart from when she released me, though she kept a careful watch on me for any outward signs of my pain. I refused to show any, which was difficult- because boy, did it hurt. By the end of the week, the skin had stopped healing over, so the words _'I will be respectful'_ remained carved into my hand. I had taken to wearing long jumpers or gloves every day to hide them.

The load of work assigned was greater and more taxing than ever this year. Umbridge kept me with her until late every night, and by the time I returned to the common room, my eyes drooping with exhaustion and my hand bleeding and screaming with pain, I had absolutely no desire to do any homework. However, despite this, I knew I had to do it, so on both Wednesday and Thursday nights I stayed awake long past the sun rising and probably averaged half an hour's sleep before classes began the next day. My work was, to put it very simply, appalling. I knew my work was far below the standard expected both of seventh year students and of me personally by my teachers, but I couldn't help it… I was running on empty.

George had been the first one to notice something, before I left for my detention on Wednesday night. "Are you alright?" he asked cautiously. Absentmindedly, I pulled my sleeves down further over my scarred hand, and though his eyes followed the motion carefully, he didn't pry when I'd waved off his concern, standing and leaving for Umbridge's office.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, Friday came, and with it came the end of my detentions. This thought, and the knowledge that the weekend was so close, sustained me throughout the entire day. My mood had been very clearly deteriorating throughout the whole week, though I'd been trying very hard to not show it. Apparently my attempts had been futile, as I soon discovered that George was no longer the only one suspicious that something may be wrong.

"So you seem a bit happier today," Alicia said carefully at lunch on Friday. I looked at her curiously, and she continued on to say, "well, I mean, you've just seemed a bit… distant… this week."

"Distant is a total understatement," Lee said, never one for beating around the bush. "You're like a Disney princess, Bree; you're the happiest person in the world. Half the time I expect you to burst into song or for talking animals to help you do your chores."

"You've been different this week, and we're worried about you," Angelina interrupted, seeing that Lee was drifting from the topic at hand, and Katie nodded her agreement. "Is something the matter?"

They all sat and stared at me, waiting for my response. I felt almost certain they'd already discussed this without me being present, and I knew they were serious because Lee had even put his food down in order to listen (and usually nothing could tear him away from his food).

"No, its fine," I waved off their concerns, feigning nonchalance. "I'm just… a bit tired and stressed with the amount of work we have to do. Thanks for worrying, though."

They all nodded slowly, and Alicia was the first one to speak. "Well, that's completely understandable. But if anything _was_ wrong, you could tell us about it."

"Yeah, you may not have been with us since first year, but that doesn't make you any less a part of this little family," Fred spoke up for the first time. "I mean, you're a bunch of misfits, but I still love ya."

Katie slapped the back of his head as I bit my lip, feeling a sudden overwhelming rush of emotion for the people surrounding me. For a moment, I thought about saying something, but then the bell rang to signal the end of lunch and I was broken out of my thoughts. So instead, I just smiled, and simply said, "Of course I know that. Thanks… I really do love you guys."

It was happily chanted back to me as we all stood. They all seemed content with my response- except George, who was still staring at me, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. I smiled gently at him before we parted ways, but I could still feel his eyes on me as I walked away from him.

My mood began to deteriorate again as 6 o'clock approached and I found myself knocking on Umbridge's door for what I really, really hoped would be the last time ever. She called me in like she usually did and I sat at the small desk where the quill and parchment were already waiting for me.

_I will be respectful._

_I will be respectful._

_I will be respectful._

Over and over again I wrote those words, so many times that they were etched into my head as much as on my hand. One hour, two hours, three hours… I lost count of the amount of time I sat there, but soon my hand began to shake and the words on the page became blurred, surrounded by drops of blood, until _finally_ she cleared her throat and motioned for me to come towards her.

"Let's see if you've got the message yet, shall we?" she sang airily, holding out her hand, and I hesitantly placed my own there. For a second, she stared down at the cuts that lay there, before she brought her thumb down on them- _hard_. I yelped in both surprise and pain, tearing my hand back to cradle it to my chest as a fresh wave of blood seeped out and fell to smudge against my shirt. I could only stare at her in horror as she stared back expectantly, and very slowly I placed my hand back in her outstretched one. She waited a moment for me to speak, but I didn't- I couldn't.

"Well… I do believe the message has sunk in, then. I hope you realize I was only trying to do you a favor," she said, and I stayed silent. She sighed before standing up, and then motioning for me to take a seat, which I did. "I want you to know, Miss Montero, that I'm not the bad guy here. I saw your Father a few times at work, and I respect him a great deal. He always speaks very highly of his children, which was why I was so surprised when you were so disrespectful to me- it made me have second thoughts about him. But this week, I spoke to a few of my fellow teachers about you and I learnt that you were close to Cedric Diggory last year, and I believe I understand a bit better now. His death was a huge shock to everyone, but most of all to the people close to him. It wasn't right for Dumbledore to feed you the lies he did when you were in such a vulnerable state; I understand why his words would have stuck with you since then. And although I know it may be difficult to understand why… you need to know that he lied to you."

She paused for a moment to consider me. I stayed silent, my mind racing- it felt like my heart had stopped beating the moment she mentioned my Dad. "I would never do that, though. I would _never_ lie to you. I want to be your friend, which was why I needed to punish you to protect both you and your classmates from the lies you were repeating. Do you understand?"

Stiffly, I jerked my head in a half nod. She smiled before sitting back down. "Good. Just know that you can come to me whenever you need to, for anything at all, Miss Montero. You may go."

Immediately, I shot to my feet, snatching my bag up and heading for the door without a backwards glance at her. I had barely closed the door behind me before I took off at a run towards the Gryffindor tower, my mind racing a mile a minute. I had to stop after a moment, suddenly unable to breathe properly; it felt like there was something inside my chest, trying to claw its way up through my lungs, trying to escape but taking up all the room in there. There wasn't enough room in my chest as the overload of emotions hit me and I flopped back against the wall beside me, trying not to scream as I felt a few stray tears leak out of my eyes.

Furiously, I turned and punched the wall as hard as I could, hardly feeling the hit before I pushed myself towards the opposite wall. I'd never in my life been a violent person, but never in my life had I felt such raw anger- such _raw hatred-_ towards another person. My vision was hazy, coated in red… and as suddenly as it hit, it faded, and another emotion replaced it. My body suddenly completely lost the burst of energy it had gained and I flopped back against the wall, sliding down until I was sat with my knees pulled up to my chest, and I began to cry, taking in deep gasping breaths as the feeling of constriction in my chest remained.

There was blood running down my hand from the cuts, which I had only aggravated when I punched the wall, and all at once the sharp pain hit me again. There was a blood stain on my white school shirt from when Umbridge had pressed down on my hand and now my eyes were undoubtedly red and bloodshot too. Not only did I feel like a mess, I certainly looked like one too, sitting alone in the corner of a random corridor and crying. The anger had faded to an emotion I couldn't quite name as I tried to even out my breathing, my mind running through Umbridge's words to me.

How dare she? _How dare she?!_ Her punishments were completely barbaric; hurting someone was one thing, but forcing them to hurt themselves as you watch for pleasure was something else entirely. And then having the gall to tell me that it was all for my own good and she wanted to be buddies?

Not only that, but she'd directly called Dumbledore a liar. She was hurting students and simultaneously trying to turn us against the one person who was protecting us.

And then… she'd mentioned my Dad. She must have known how much of an affect that would have on me… was she hinting indirectly that the respect she'd had for him had been lost when she met me? It felt almost like she was saying that anything I did… directly affected him. The moment she'd begun speaking I'd wanted to scream at her, but as soon as she mentioned him that drained out of my body. Would my actions affect his job? She was the right hand of the Minister, she had the power to hurt him. I honestly believe that telling the truth, standing up to her had been the right thing to do… but I would sit through a hundred years of detentions with her if it meant keeping my Dad safe from whatever she had in mind.

That was when I was able to finally put a name to the emotion coursing through my veins.

I felt hopeless.

"Bree?"

My head shot up, surprised that anyone would be out this late, to see George coming towards me, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I quickly pulled my sleeve down to hide my bloodied hand just as he came close enough to notice my tear stained face. His whole face furrowed in what looked like concern, and then raw panic, before he ran the last of the distance towards me and bent down in front of me.

"Bree! Oh Merlin, are you alright?! What happened?!" he cried, and I opened my mouth to once again tell him that I was okay, that I was fine, but against my own will my face scrunched up again and my tears started afresh. So instead of saying anything, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to his chest, where I threw my arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder.

I don't know how long we stayed like that. It felt like hours that George cradled me to his chest, holding his questions back even though I knew he would be close to bursting with them. But he stayed silent and held me, brushing my hair back soothingly, just like he'd done to comfort me when Cedric had died. Inexplicably, this familiar motion helped to calm me down enough that the tears began to stop, but I stayed close to him, burying my face in his shoulder.

Eventually, George pushed me gently away from him, but I kept my arms around his shoulders, unwilling to leave him so soon. A second later I realized that this hadn't been his intention at all, as he brought his hands up to cradle my face, wiping the tears off of my cheeks with his thumbs. "What happened, Bree?" he asked gently, continuing on more strongly when I shook my head, "Please, tell me. I can't fix it if I don't know what's wrong."

And then, out of his peripheral vision, he noticed the red. His eyes drifted down to my shirt, and when his eyes shot up to meet mine again, the raw panic was back. "Is that _blood_?!"

I began to shake my head in denial, but he wasn't having it. He pulled the upper half of his body away from mine (which was all he could really do because I was mostly sitting on him) and his eyes began scanning my body, needing only a second before his eyes landed on the right sleeve of my jumper, which had turned a darker color due to the blood. I stayed silent, watching as he gently took my wrist, bringing it up in between our bodies and slowly pushed my sleeve up, until the words _'I will be respectful' _lay before his eyes.

For a moment, we both stayed silent, allowing the weight of the situation to hit us as I saw him trying to work out what had happened in his head. And then, eventually, he managed to breathe out, "Umbridge?"

Very slowly, I nodded, my eyes never leaving his bright brown ones, until the moment was broken by a shuffling noise in the corridor beyond us.

He helped me stand, his hand threading through my uninjured one and pulling me behind him, speeding up when we heard Filch's voice somewhere behind us. As it turned out, I was much closer to the common room than I'd thought; I was only a few corridors away. When we entered the room it was empty, and George immediately pulled his hand away from mine, keeping his back to me.

"George?" I whispered, concern coloring my tone when he didn't turn around. And then I realized that his entire body was shaking. I laid my hand on his shoulder, pulling him around to face me.

Never before had I seen George look this angry. He was absolutely furious as he begged, "Tell me what happened. Please. Tell me everything."

Nodding slowly, I pulled him over to sit on the couch. And I did; I told him everything. I told him about what had happened in her office every night this week, about the way she had watched me as I sat beside her cutting my hand open again and again. I told him about how behind I'd fallen in all of my classes and how little I'd been sleeping, and most importantly, I told him about what she had said to me before I'd left her office tonight- except the mention of my Dad. I kept that close to the chest. The whole time, George stayed silent, just listening, and I realized how good it felt to talk about this after holding it in all week.

"That- that-" George eventually stuttered after I'd finished talking, looking disgusted. "That hag! That ghastly bitch!"

I nodded slowly, but George didn't notice as his eyes drifted down to where I cradled my hand against my chest. "Oh, Bree… does it hurt much?" he asked, the anger fading out of his tone to be replaced with concern, as he gently pried my hand away from my chest to cradle it carefully in his own where he could observe the words on my hand better.

"It stings," I murmured, "but it probably won't hurt for long."

We lapsed into silence then, and though I could see George didn't believe how much I'd downplayed the pain, he didn't call me out on it, simply kept my hand enclosed in his. Eventually, he spoke again.

"You have to report this-"

"No," I interrupted immediately, shaking my head. "No, I can handle it."

"You can handle it?" he echoed in disbelief. "Bree, you shouldn't have to handle it! She's a teacher, for Merlin's sakes, she's meant to take care of you, not hurt you! It's not right!"

"I know it's not, but I just… I thought I could handle it on my own. I don't want to tell anyone." Only earlier that morning I'd been ready to tell my friends what had happened in Umbridge's office, but with the mention of my Father she ensured I'd keep my mouth shut- both about what had happened and in her classes in the future.

We fell into silence then, when I broke our gaze to stare out the window at the stars outside. I could feel that his gaze remained on me though, and eventually, he spoke again.

"I'll let this go now," he said quietly, "but if it happens again- if she _hurts _you again, whether it's physically, emotionally, or anything else… you_ are_ reporting this."

Slowly, my eyes drifted back to his, and I nodded. He nodded back, before pulling me to his chest, where I wrapped my arms around his waist and made myself comfortable. I felt much better after talking this all out with George- he always seemed to understand me, even when I didn't quite understand myself. And he felt so warm and so familiar that soon enough, I managed to push all of my muddled thoughts away for a while, to think about another time, and drifted to the first good night's sleep I'd had all week.

* * *

><p>With the weekend came a new, determined mentality. I realized that a part of my sour mood (apart from the obvious) had to do with my lack of sleep and poor quality of work, but first thing Saturday morning I set off to rectify this. George hadn't told the rest of our friends what had happened, only that I needed help and was too afraid to ask for it, and so help they did. Alicia sat with me and explained the phases of the moon that I had missed whilst drifting in and out of sleep in Divination all week, and helped me complete my work on it. Katie cheekily grinned before giving me back my dream diary, which she had already done two months in advance (with the theme of dinosaurs becoming greater and greater each week until by the end of next month, my dreams were just random facts about the Tyrannosaurus Rex). Lee helped me with my Transfiguration work and helped me learn the spells I'd been struggling with all week. Angelina, as we had agreed to do a week ago, sat down with me in the common room and went over what we'd learnt in Defense Against the Dark Arts and tried to translate the theory into practice. This proved to be much more difficult than I'd imagined it would be without a teacher. Fred and George, who both barely tried in Potions these days, sat with me well into the early hours of Sunday morning going through what we'd learnt in class so far and helping me rewrite the essay I'd hastily scrawled earlier in the week.<p>

Honestly, I didn't know what to say. How could I ever sum up in mere words how much these people meant to me? But they didn't seem to need it, merely waving off my thanks and pretending not to notice how emotional their show of loyalty and friendship had made me.

George took this a step further on Monday morning. He and his brother were already sitting in front of the fireplace talking about how to improve the Skiving Snackboxes before breakfast when I approached. George immediately looked up and smiled at me, before motioning to a small bowl of yellow liquid on the table.

"It's strained and pickled murtlap tentacles. It sounds gross, but our potions textbook says that if you soak your hand in it, it will stop the pain," he said, and I lowered my hand into it experimentally. Immediately, the dull ache evaporated from the cuts on my hand, which had been aggravated even more by all the writing I'd done over the weekend.

"Oh, George, thank you so much," I said, smiling up at him, and he shrugged it off, saying it was nothing. It wasn't though; George hardly ever picked up his Potions book, but now that's twice in the span of two days that he's done so to help me. I felt touched.

Over the next few minutes, Katie and Angelina skipped down the stairs, and we set off for the Great Hall to join Lee and Alicia at breakfast. Angelina flopped down in between them, immediately dragging a plate of toast towards her.

"You know, I think I need to add more of a food theme to my romance novel-"

"Sex novel," Lee corrected, and Angelina shook her head.

"The official author's term is 'smut' novel," she said wisely, glancing at the food around her. Her eyes landed on a bowl of chopped fruit with whip cream on top, and her entire face lit up as she pulled it towards her. "I mean, look at this! The stuff I've got in the book right now is so tame."

"I haven't heard much about your book, actually," Alicia said idly. "What's the storyline?"

"Oh man, it's so good," Angelina gushed. "Right, so it's about a woman called Christina who is in an arranged marriage with a man she can't stand. She runs off to Greece as a sort of last hurrah before she loses all her freedom marrying her Father's business associate, and that's where she meets Marco. Its love at first sight- electric, dangerous, romantic. But Marko is just a poor fisherman and she knows it's wrong, but that's what makes it so _right_. They can't stay away from each other no matter how hard they try, and they enter into an illicit love affair."

Angelina paused to fan herself, not noticing the stares she was getting.

"That sounds… interesting…" Alicia said diplomatically, but Fred scoffed.

"It sounds like a load of shi- oof!" he broke off, rubbing his stomach where I'd elbowed him before changing track. "I mean… sounds… saucy?"

"Oh, sweetie, it is," Angelina winked. "But as I was saying, I need some more outlandish sex scenes. I mean, I've got sex on the beach and all that romantic stuff, but I think I'll write a chapter on fun with whipped cream…"

Lee looked pretty excited by the idea. Alicia looked mildly disgusted. Thankfully, we were saved from anymore of Angelina's novel plans by the arrival of the post owls. I was ripping into my usual letter from Toby, where he would act like a mother hen and pry for details of my life, when I was interrupted by a loud gasp from Alicia. Hurriedly glancing up, I saw her staring down at the front page of the Daily Prophet with a horrified look. Wordlessly, before we could ask, she laid the Prophet flat on the table for us to see. What was there made my stomach drop.

It was a large photo of Umbridge, smiling widely up at us from beneath the headline:

_MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM: DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST EVER HIGH INQUISITOR _

"What the ever loving _fuck_ is a high inquisitor?" Lee demanded through a mouthful of food. Ignoring him, Alicia began to read aloud.

_"'In a surprise move last night, the Ministry of Magic passed new legislation giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… responding to concerns voiced by anxious parents who feel the school may be moving in a direction they do not approve of… Dolores Umbridge has been an immediate success, totally revolutionizing the teaching of Defense Against the Dark Arts and providing the Minister with on-the-ground feedback of what's happening at Hogwarts'…"_

"SHE DOESN'T TEACH!" Angelina burst out so loudly a few Ravenclaw's turned to look at us. "HOW CAN SHE HAVE REVOLUTIONISED TEACHING WITH METHODS THAT DON'T BLOODY TEACH!"

"Ignore that," I snapped, "she's giving the Ministry 'on-the-ground feedback' of what's going on here? She's bloody spying on us."

"It gets worse…" Alicia said nervously, looking up from the paper. "Fred, George… your brothers in here."

Immediately, Fred snatched the paper from her and he and his brother began to read. After a moment, he let out a disgusted scoff and threw the paper back onto the table, where I hastily picked it up and began to read.

"_Junior Assistant to the Minister, Percy Weasley, says, "We've recently formalized the passing of Educational Decree number twenty three, which creates the new position of Hogwarts High Inquisitor. This is an exciting new phase in the Minister's plan to get to grips with what some are calling the falling standards of Hogwarts. The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure they're coming up to scratch. Professor Umbridge has been offered this position in addition to her own teaching post and we are delighted to say that she has accepted." _I read aloud. "This is disgusting… the rest of the article just goes on to talk about what they call the 'bad decisions' Dumbledore's made in the past, like 'hiring half-giant Rubeus Hagrid and werewolf Remus Lupin,' and the fact that they're pretty sure he's off his rocker now."

Everyone had very similar looks of distaste on their faces- except the twins, who both looked strangely giddy all of a sudden.

"I can't wait to see McGonagall get a- what's it called?- _inspection_," Fred sniggered

George grinned. "McGonagall will put the old hag in her place quick smart."

When we entered Transfiguration later that day, the twins were both disappointed to see that Umbridge was nowhere to be found. The day passed smoothly after that, and soon enough it was 5 o'clock and I found myself entering the library, ready to tutor Draco Malfoy.

I knew I should have spent the time on my own work, but Draco seemed like he really needed my help. He was already there when I arrived, sitting in the back corner of the library with his face shoved in a thick book. He didn't notice me until I dropped my bag on the ground, and the noise seemed to startle him so much he dropped the book.

"Quiet, aren't you?" he snapped, glaring, and I just stared at him.

"Am I meant to apologize for that?" I asked unsurely, and he rolled his eyes.

"Let's just do this," he said irately, and I straightened my back, staring him down until he was finished picking up his book and had met my eyes again, confused as to why I hadn't sat down yet.

"We need to clear this up before we even start, Draco," I said. "First of all, what I'm doing right now doesn't benefit me- I'm doing this as a favor for you. So you're gonna need to be a bit more polite, okay?"

I waited for him to nod stiffly, before continuing. "Secondly, don't question my teaching methods, just do it. Okay?"

Again, he nodded stiffly, and I smiled, finally sitting down across from him. "Alright, we're good. I'm assuming Umbridge is forcing the same theoretical nonsense on all of her classes, so I swiped my old Defense Against the Dark Arts book from Sam that I used in my fifth year at Walden, which is a lot more detailed than the shit she has you reading. I thought we might just work through it unless you had something in particular you wanted to start with?"

"No, that, uh… that sounds good," he said, and I nodded, reaching down to pull out my textbook and flipping it open.

We stayed there for around an hour working through the first few pages, and I gotta say, he kind of surprised me. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but Draco was a smart boy who picked up new things relatively quickly. He didn't have much trouble with theory; his problem was that Umbridge wasn't explaining it properly. When it was broken down for him he had an easier time understanding it. His practical spell casting was a little off on the first try, but with better guidance he got it in no time. We worked through the first three spells from the syllabus before the lunch bell rang at six o'clock, and I began packing up my stuff.

"I think this went really well, Draco!" I cried excitedly. "I know your learning style a bit better now, so I'll have a better idea of how to proceed for our next session. You're pretty good at this subject, really; you're a smart kid."

His head shot up from where he had been looking down at his bag as he packed away his books. Slowly, a sort of confused looking smile formed on his face, and I wondered if anyone had ever told him that before. I was about to speak again, when the moment was broken.

"Draco?" a voice called, and in a second his expression turned panicked. He dived behind the armchair I was sitting on to hide, just as I saw Pansy Parkinson emerge from a row of books near us.

She called his name again, before her eyes drifted over to me, and then down to where I now realized his bag still lay beside me. Her eyes narrowed and she stalked towards me, crossing her arms across her chest and staring me down once she reached where I sat.

"What's that doing here?" she demanded, and I narrowed my eyes at her. I was not very fond of the attitude this cocky fifth year was taking with me.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" I asked, feigning boredom, and she pointed down at Draco's bag.

"That's Draco's bag. Why do _you_ have it, Montero?"

Rolling my eyes, I said "I found the bag here. If you know who it belongs to, feel free to take it to them."

I kicked his bag towards her, and she immediately snatched it up, her gaze continuing to size me up as she did so.

"You can leave now," I dismissed quickly, realizing that Draco's large stature was probably not making it easy for him to stay hunched behind me. "Oh, but Pansy? Please work on your attitude, it's really appalling."

She spun back around from when she had turned to leave, looking ready to start an argument with me, when Madam Pince happened to pass by her. Madam Pince loved books but seemed to think they would be better if nobody ever touched them, so inevitably she hated people in her library, no matter what they were doing. So under the observation of Madam Pince, Pansy merely shot me a rather insolent glare, and then stomped away from me, clutching Draco's bag to her chest.

Draco stood once she was gone, a relieved sigh escaping him.

"Care to tell me what that was all about?" I inquired.

"She's a bloody nightmare!" he exclaimed. "I took her to the Yule Ball last year and ever since it's like she thinks we're dating! She keeps making up nicknames for me and touching me and following me around like a puppy! I mean, that would all be fine if she didn't have the personality of a rock!"

Surprised, I let a laugh escape. "She can't be-"

"Don't you dare tell me she can't be that bad!" he warned, pointing at me. "You haven't spent the past five years with her! She's bloody annoying, and pretty rude, too."

I wanted to say something about how he wasn't exactly a bundle of sunshine to get along with most of the time, but managed to refrain. It was nice when Draco would forget that he wasn't supposed to like me and start a conversation.

"You should just be straight with her," I advised. "It can only get worse before it gets better."

He rubbed his forehead and pulled his books to his chest, now that he didn't have a bag to carry them in. "Yeah, maybe…" he murmured, before suddenly his posture stiffened. "Er… thanks for covering for me. Sorry for unloading on you like that. See you next Monday."

Then before I could say anything, he turned and left, leaving me gaping after him in confusion before I punched the pillow beside me with an aggravated scoff. How could one person be so consistently hot and cold?! This kid needs fricken' therapy or something.

* * *

><p>Things began to quieten down for a while. Umbridge inspected all the teachers over the course of a week, and the twins were let down when they missed McGonagall's inspection. Sam witnessed it and apparently it was everything the twins imagined it would be. We witnessed Snape's inspection, which largely consisted of him being his usual drama queen self and acting like every time Umbridge opened her mouth she was greatly disturbing him, even though he had literally just been glaring around at us all when she began talking to him. After the inspections, schooling life went back to normal. I would even go so far as to say things were kind of boring for everyone.<p>

And then the Quidditch season began to draw closer.

Now, I'd heard a lot of jokes since the beginning of term about Angelina turning into the next Oliver Wood. I had never personally met Oliver but the jokes were explained enough for me to get a good laugh out of them.

None of us imagined that it would actually happen, and yet… here we are.

Angelina had been getting moodier as the Quidditch season got closer, and by 'moodier' I mean 'angrier and more aggressive.' The tryouts flew by pretty smoothly, and I was excited to learn that Ron had made the position of Keeper. Angelina was pretty upfront about the fact that he had quite a bit of room for improvement, but apart from that was pretty smooth about the whole affair.

Slowly but surely, she began to get more manic. At random times, she'd stop what she was doing to scribble down new moves she thought up. She would randomly disappear from my side to hunt down one of her team members to talk about tactics. Their training hours were long and most nights when everyone got back they would flop straight into bed without even changing. She began giving motivational speeches that were really more frightening than anything else.

"I hate to say it," Fred muttered at one point, "but she's a bloody tyrant." And that was a pretty fair assessment to make.

Things got worse when they organized their first team practice. Angelina stomped into the common room looking so furious she didn't have to say anything before a group of second years evacuated the seats in front of the fire. I stayed silent, not wanting to face her wrath if she decided to take it out on me, and eventually she let out an aggravated groan and turned to face me.

"Right, you heard me _specifically say_ that our first team practice was this Friday night at five o'clock, did you not?!"

I nodded.

"And you heard me say that the _entire team_ had to be present to help Ronald get a feel for how we play?"

Again, I nodded.

"WELL NOW THE WHOLE BLOODY TEAM ISNT GOING TO BE THERE!"

I winced, and half the common room looked up in concern at her yell.

"Calm down, Angie, it's not the end of the world. Just reschedule it for Saturday night. That would be better anyway, it means you all have a day of resting all day Saturday so you're prepared to practice," I attempted to placate her, but she merely scoffed angrily and crossed her arms.

We sat in silence for a moment, before she sat forward slightly and tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. "I'm gonna go write an angry sex scene for my book to try and calm myself down. I'm absolutely bloody furious."

Again choosing to stay silent, I nodded. She stood and turned to leave, but not before she spun around again and snapped "I don't care if he is the bloody Boy Who Lived, I will smack Harry Potter into the next damn century for this. The one damn time I need him, he gets himself a detention with Umbridge. Ha!"

Angelina stomped away, but I hardly noticed. It felt like my heart had stopped- Umbridge was giving Harry detentions. "Oh, no…"


	21. Is Angelina's Romance Novel Coming True?

I kept myself awake on Friday night by writing my potions essay, in between glancing anxiously up at the entrance to the common room. Apparently, my concentration needed some work, because I fell asleep at some point, only being awoken by the sound of the Fat Lady speaking. Glancing down at my watch, I realised I'd been asleep for close to three hours and it was well past midnight by now. Not only that, but I'd hardly done even a quarter of my essay. Fantastic.

The Fat Lady stopped talking and Harry entered the room, clutching his right hand tightly as a look of extreme discomfort flitted across his face. When he spotted me, he quickly masked his pain, putting on a blank face and swinging his injured hand behind his back.

"Bree," he greeted, rather stiffly. "What are you doing down here so late?"

"Waiting for you," I answered honestly, and his gaze turned to one of surprise. I leant over and picked up the bowl resting on the table in front of me, which he glanced at curiously. "It's murtlap essence; it's kinda gross and you really don't want to know how you get it, but it'll help with the pain in your hand."

He drew back slightly, looking shocked, like I'd slapped him. Before he could demand how I knew like I saw he was ready to, I lifted my hand to show him my scars. _I must be respectful._

His entire body slackened, and for a moment we stayed like that in silence. Then, he dropped his bag on the ground and sat beside me on the couch, holding his hand up so his own scars showed, still bleeding pretty heavily. _I must not tell lies._

I let out a gasp; his cuts looked much deeper than mine. I took his hand in mine and gently pushed it into the bowl of murtlap essence. When his hand submerged, he let out a gasp of pain, before his face slowly slackened as the substance did its job, relieving him.

"I haven't had much time to spend with you since term started," I said after a moment of silence. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fantastic," he scoffed angrily. "Everybody stares at me because they think I'm a filthy liar, which I now have carved into my hand in case they forget. I nearly died, and now everybody treats me like a child they have to protect from getting a paper cut. Things are bloody wonderful!"

I stayed silent for a moment, watching as he glared at the fire roaring in the fireplace. Harry had been through more than I could ever imagine in his short lifetime, and it was then that I realized that for the majority of it, he had been alone. His parents died before he really knew them, leaving him to live with (from what I had gathered from Sam) relatives who seemed to be emotionally abusive. He hadn't had a family until he reached Hogwarts, and now some of them were turning on him, like Seamus. None of us were in the graveyard with him; none of us could possibly imagine what he's going through now with the Ministry undermining him at every turn, but damned if I won't try to. So instead of slapping the back of his head for taking such a rude tone with me, I kept calm.

"Ya know, the moment you decided to make friends with Sam, I became your older sister. And frankly, you're as stuck with me as he is now," I said, only half joking. "I just want to help you."

Silence fell, until he eventually said quietly "I'm sorry for snapping at you. I'm just… god, I'm _so_ mad these days. About everything."

"That's understandable. How long have you had the detentions for?"

"Since term started. I've had about three weeks worth of them altogether," he replied, and I took in a surprised breath. No wonder his scars looked so much worse than mine if she kept him every day as long as she had today. "I uh… I announced pretty loudly that Voldemort was back."

Trying not to wince at the use of You-Know-Who's name, I nodded. "Yeah, me too. She started talking about Cedric, and I guess I just kinda lost it. Next thing I knew, I was writing lines in my own blood."

"She's evil," Harry said, without a hint of uncertainty in his tone. "She's completely twisted."

I looked at him thoughtfully. "Do you know, I don't think she's _evil_, per se. I think that she genuinely believes what she's saying. She's doing what she thinks we're doing- spreading lies- but I think that she genuinely doesn't believe anything about You-Know-Who returning, and I can't blame her for that," I said, taking my time putting my thoughts into words. "But that being said… she is a vile woman. She may not believe what we're saying, but for Merlin's sakes, we're _teenagers._ She shouldn't be allowed to hurt us- more than that, she shouldn't want to. I mean, Hogwarts is supposed to be somewhere that we feel safe, but with her around… I just don't."

"Did you tell anyone about what she's doing?" Harry asked quietly, and I shook my head.

"No. No, I didn't." Again, Umbridge's words about my Dad flashed through my head. They'd been on my mind ever since my last detention, leaving the feeling of total helplessness to twist in my gut constantly. "I just… I wish there was something we could do, ya know? I feel defenseless."

Harry was staring at me, looking confused. I gave him a querying look and he said hurriedly, almost rushing to get it out, "if there was something that we could do, something to help defend ourselves… would you do it?"

Without any hesitance, I said that I would. He glanced away then, into the fire, with a look of intense concentration, until eventually, his look turned to one of resolve. "Why's that?" I asked curiously, and he just smiled. Whereas before his entire form, from his posture to the look in his eyes, looked sort of hopeless, he now looked determined. He sprung up to his feet, shaking his head.

"Thanks, Bree!" he said with a grin, not answering my question before he grabbed his bag and headed up to the boys dormitory.

"Uh, you're welcome?" I called, feeling completely confused. What the hell did I miss?

* * *

><p>"I have decided that we shall be moving on from interpreting dreams to crystal ball gazing a little earlier than anticipated."<p>

Beside me, Alicia yawned. George was staring out the window looking as though he hadn't heard a word Trelawney had said. Trelawney seemed disappointed with our lack of excitement, and by the fact that I was one of the only students even listening. I don't know what she expected; out of all the dodgy things we do in Divination, crystal ball gazing has to be the worst. It didn't make sense in third year and chances are, it won't make sense now either.

"I have Seen that your midyear examination will include this topic, and I want to give you all sufficient practice."

Fred snorted. "She writes our midyear exam," he pointed out, not bothering to lower his voice. Trelawney resolutely ignored him and continued on as I tried to stifle a yawn, regretting taking this subject for about the thousandth time in my life.

"Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art, and I do not expect any of you will be able to See the first time you peer into the Orb's infinite depths. We shall begin by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes, so as to clear the Inner Eye and the super conscious," Trelawney said in her usual dreamy tone, seemingly not noticing when Fred had to slap his brothers back when George choked on his laughter.

And so we began. She didn't tell us to consult our textbooks, so we just sat there staring into the crystal ball and trying to keep out minds blank- or, 'relaxing our external eyes.' Which was kinda hard when thoughts kept floating forward like 'this is stupid'.

"You see anything?" Alicia asked in a bored tone after around half an hour of this.

"Yeah, a bunch of swirling white stuff. I think the fates are telling me it's gonna be a white Christmas this year," Fred responded lazily, not even looking at his crystal ball anymore. "Course, I already knew that, but it was nice of the Fates to let me know anyway."

I tried to hide a laugh before giving up on the crystal ball altogether. "Hey, guess what?" I asked excitedly, and the three others (who had given up on their own crystal balls a while ago) turned to look at me curiously.

"Umbridge fell down a flight of stairs?" Fred guessed.

"Umbridge quit?" Alicia guessed.

"Snape washed his hair?" George guessed, and I rolled my eyes.

"No, none of the above. Nothing like that," I said, starting to smile excitedly. "It's nearly Thanksgiving!"

They all stared at me blankly. "Oh, yeah," Fred eventually said. "I've heard of that. We don't celebrate it here."

My jaw dropped. "What?! Since when?!"

"Since… forever," George said, shrugging.

"But it's one of the best holidays of the year!" I cried.

"Not an English one. Didn't you notice that we didn't celebrate it last year?"

"I was a little bit distracted last year, what with the Triwizard Tournament being on!"

Alicia shrugged. "Well, sorry Breezy."

I couldn't help the frown that came onto my face. "But… I like it."

George looked like he was about to speak when his eyes shifted to something behind me. A second later, Trelawney appeared at my side, bending to sit at our table.

"Allow me to help you, my dears," she said dreamily, pulling Fred's crystal ball towards her and gazing into it. She squinted for a moment, before saying "oh, I See something…"

The rest of the class, eager to stop crystal gazing, turned to watch Trelawney as she stared at the crystal ball with a look of intense concentration. "There's something here… something moving… oh, my dear… something dark, something dangerous, prowling ever closer…"

Half the class were holding their breath as they watched, until she suddenly yelled and jumped backwards, toppling the chair over behind her in her haste to get away from the table. She clutched a hand over her heart, as a Hufflepuff girl eagerly asked "Oh, Professor, what is it?!"

Trelawney continued staring at Fred. "Never have I seen such despair in the depths of the crystal ball! You, my dear… are in grave danger!"

The room fell into a tense silence, until Fred broke it.

"Well, that's a shame," he said bracingly, glancing out the window disinterestedly. "I'll make sure to be nice and safe from now on."

Before Trelawney could insist on the dangers Fred faced like she usually did when she predicted death and despair, the bell rang, and Fred sprung to his feet cheerily. The class filed out quickly, hoping to avoid homework, and I sighed as we left the room.

"It was so nice having a teacher at Walden who was a real Seer," I said wistfully. "His predictions were always so interesting. He always used to predict fun things, like who was going to get married and what everyone was getting for Christmas. I mean, does Trelawney think people really still believe she's a Seer with all that doom and gloom she puts on?"

"You know, sometimes I think she really believes she is a Seer," Alicia said. "Who knows? Maybe she thinks her predictions are real."

"Yeah, because some idiots at this school humor her and her tendency to predict the deaths of students who don't like her classes," Fred snapped in annoyance. "That better not become a regular occurrence; she's been filling up classes by predicting Harry's death for two years now."

"Well, have fun, Freddie," I said cheerily, "but back to thanksgiving-"

I was cut off when I turned a corner and collided hard with someone. Stumbling backwards, my books toppled out of my arms as I fell flat on my ass. About to start apologizing, I looked up and forgot what I'd intended to say the moment my eyes met those of Jason Dawes.

He was still standing upright, but his books were scattered amongst mine on the ground around me. He didn't seem to mind me knocking into him, because all he did was grin at me and reach a hand down to help pull me to my feet. "You weren't kidding about being clumsy, were you?" he asked, only partially joking.

Wincing, I replied "Not at all," realizing that the only times I'd ever interacted with this boy I'd barely scraped by without a concussion.

We both bent at the same time to start gathering our books, and he said "Well, it's good to see you anyway. It's weird we haven't run into each other more after so long going to school together."

"It's probably a good thing; what with our track record, one of us is gonna get hurt soon," I replied, knowing that the one getting hurt would inevitably be me as I felt my tailbone throbbing from hitting it on the cobblestone ground a moment ago.

"Well, the third time's the charm, I suppose," he said, handing me one of my books as we stood. He glanced behind me where his friends were waiting. "Hey, so I'm gonna be late for Transfiguration. I'll see you around."

I nodded, waving goodbye as he passed me. I turned just in time to see him turn the corner, and that was the moment when a yell rang out behind me.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

I turned to see Lee staring at me with his jaw hanging open.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" I asked in confusion.

"I was just coming out of the library when I happened upon_ that_ little scene! Did you see the way he was eyeing you off? You should've jumped him then and there! We wouldn't have minded watching!"

Rolling my eyes, I didn't deign his comment with an answer. Instead, I focused on putting my books back into my bag, which was when I realized that the book he'd handed me wasn't mine, but one of his.

"Oh, he accidentally gave me one of his books," I said, and Lee scoffed.

"Accidentally? Yeah right, that smooth fucker did that on purpose. Now you have to find him and give it back to him and he has another excuse to talk to you!"

I rolled my eyes. "Lee, you're so full of shit. My life is not Angelina's romance novel, that totally isn't gonna happen."

"Actually, this sounds like something she would put in the novel," Alicia said, grinning. "Now you get to talk to him again! Try not to do something weird… again."

"Well, if that doesn't make me feel like an idiot," I snapped, ignoring the truth to her statement as I made my way into the library.

* * *

><p>The next day after school found me doing my homework alone in the common room. I had originally been in my dormitory room, but Victoria and Ruby were chattering away about hair care too loudly for me to get anything done, so I moved down here a few minutes ago.<p>

_And apparently I won't be getting anything done down here either_, I mused as a pair of shoes stopped in front of where I sat on the ground. I dragged my gaze up to meet the eyes of my brother, greeting him with a smile.

He didn't bother with pleasantries before skipping straight to the chase. "I gotta talk to you. Do you have a minute?"

I motioned to the books stacked open around me and the parchment on my lap. "No, I'm not doing anything right now," I said sarcastically, and he rolled his eyes before glancing around the mostly empty common room suspiciously and sitting down beside me.

He stayed mysteriously silent for a moment as he eyed off the only other occupants of the room, a group of sixth years chattering loudly. "Are you… alright?" I eventually inquired, my concern growing the longer he stayed silent. "Has something happened?"

"Right, here's the thing," he said, in a voice so low I had to lean in closer to hear him. "Hermione had this idea to start up a sort of club to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry's agreed to teach us. He's the most talented person I know when it comes to this stuff- he's the only one of us whose actually faced the dark arts, more than once for that matter. I don't really have that much information right now; we're meeting during the first Hogsmeade weekend to discuss it all."

"Sam," I said slowly, biting my lip nervously after a moment of consideration. "I don't know about this… there's no way Umbridge would be okay with this…"

"Well, duh, that's why we're keeping it quiet," he said, as though it were obvious. I gaped at him for a moment, and he made to continue speaking when I burst out "No!"

His gaze shot up to meet mine, looking surprised. "'No,' what?"

"No!" I repeated forcefully, feeling my heart rate speed up nervously. "No, Sam, you aren't doing something this reckless!"

He stiffened, staring at me in disbelief. "Are you _kidding_ me?! How do you not see how important this is?! We need to learn how to defend ourselves!"

"I'm not denying that, but this isn't the way to go about it! You're not doing _anything _that's gonna get you on Umbridge's bad side! I'm not letting that foul woman hurt you!"

His gaze very suddenly softened, and the anger I'd seen building disappeared. "Oh, Bree… this is about Harry's detentions, isn't it? That's why you're so worried about upsetting her?"

He took my silence as an affirmation. "Bree, I know all about what she's doing to his hand in his detentions, but-"

He broke off when he saw me shifting my own hand subconsciously further beneath my legs. I tried not to visibly show my panic, having hoped to be a bit stealthier, but as I nodded for him to continue and he kept staring at me, I silently cursed the fact that Sam had always been overly perceptive.

"What the hell was that?" he asked quietly, and I schooled my face into a fake confused expression. In a second, his hand shot down and he snatched my wrist up, so my hand was visible, and with it the scars etched on the back. I'd been alone and shrugged off the jumper I'd constantly worn since getting the scars before Sam had arrived, and now I cursed myself for it as his gaze shifted up to me and I saw how horrified he looked. "No… she _didn't_… not to you…"

I pulled my hand from his. "I don't want you doing anything to upset her."

"Why didn't you tell me that she was doing this?!" he asked, looking more and more upset the longer we sat there. "God, why did I believe you when you said you were just sleep deprived?! I should have known that wasn't all there was to it!"

"Sam, I didn't want you to know," I said, cutting him off. "I've been around you long enough to know how to lie to you. I didn't want you to worry about me, but please don't give that woman an excuse to do this to you!"

He pulled back from me then, falling silent, but keeping my hand in his larger one. Eventually he said slowly, "I know where you're coming from… but can't you see this is more important? We need to know how to defend ourselves, or we could be in danger. Don't you see that?!"

I stayed silent. Slowly, he got to his feet. "I have to go meet Ron, but promise me you'll consider this. Please?"

When he saw me nod, he stood to leave. Just as the portrait hole was swinging shut behind him, it reopened and half the Gryffindor Quidditch team filed in. I groaned loudly, slamming the textbook I'd just picked back up shut as Fred and George flopped down on the couch behind me.

"That was a bloody disaster," George groaned, "Our team is in bad shape."

"Well, it was only your second practice," I reasoned, quickly realizing that my attempts at comforting them were futile when they both shot me a glare.

"Ron's got next to no confidence on a broom; he's a reasonable player, but he gets shaken up really easily and starts playing like a child flying for the first time," Fred said.

"Yeah, he got so nervous out there he threw the ball so hard it hit Katie in the face," George said. I sat up in concern, and he waved me off. "She's fine now, Madam Pomfrey will patch her up quick smart."

"It must have been a hard hit to warrant Madam Pomfrey to take a look," I said worriedly, and they both shifted uncomfortably, before muttering inaudibly. I barely managed to catch the words "skiving snackbox" and rolled my eyes, quickly surmising that their malfunctioning products were once again to blame for someone's injury.

I gathered my books up and shoved them in my bag, standing. "Well, I'm getting out of here before Angelina arrives and takes her aggression out on you two. Good luck," I waved before exiting the common room and heading up to the library, hoping against all odds that I might finally find somewhere quiet to get some work done. The library had a reasonable amount of people in it, but the room was at least silent, and I sighed in relief as I moved towards a table closer to the back.

Passing a row of books, I glimpsed a familiar face out of the corner of my eye and stopped just beyond the bookcase. I knew I needed to work, and it was so rare to find a quiet spot to do so for very long before Lee or Katie arrived to disturb me. But this would only take a moment…

With a determined nod, I turned and walked around the bookcase, stopping in front of Jason where he sat on the floor, reading something intently. When I stopped beside him, he slowly tore his gaze away from the book in his lap and a smile flitted across his face when he saw me.

"Uh… hi," I said dumbly, and his smile grew as he motioned for me to sit beside him, which I hesitantly did. He was literally the most attractive male I'd ever seen in my life, it was pretty inevitable to get a bit nervous. Suddenly remembering why I'd approached him, I reached into my bag and pulled out his Charms textbook.

"You accidentally gave this to me yesterday. I just thought you might be needing it."

He took the book from me and put it down next to him, before looking back at me. "Oh, it wasn't an accident. I figured you'd have to talk to me again if you had to return my book."

I looked up at him in shock, my eyes widening as I took in what he'd said. Oh my God, Lee had actually been _right._ How often did that happen?!

Not bloody often at all!

"Oh!" I said simply, trying and failing to mask my delighted surprise. "Well, here I am."

"Here you are," he repeated. "You know, I don't know very much about you at all except that you're an American transfer."

"That's basically all there is," I joked, shrugging. "No, uh… I was born and raised in America with my baby brother Sam and older brother Toby, so I'm the only girl in the family."

"That's cool; growing up with two brothers would have been interesting. I was an only child until this year; my Mum and Step-Dad gave me a baby sister."

"Oh, wow! That must have been a huge change to adjust to!"

"Oh, you bet. It took some getting used to but god, do I love that kid. Ruby is so beautiful," he said, a fond smile forming on his face, and my heart just about melted at how loving he sounded when he talked about his sister.

"I know how you feel. My older brother practically raised me and I feel so responsible for Sam. My family is so important to me; I'd do anything for them," I said simply.

He nodded. "I think I understand that now. I've seen your little brother around I think, hanging around Potter. What does your older brother do?"

"Toby's a healer at St Mungo's. A pretty good one, actually. He's nearly twenty."

"Ah, cool. I wanted to be a healer for a while when I was a kid."

"But not anymore?"

"Nah, not anymore. I want to follow in my Father's footsteps and work for the Ministry," he said, sounding proud.

"Oh, excellent! My Dad works there, too. Frankly, I still have no idea what I'm gonna do when school finishes. I'm hoping for a burst of inspiration to suddenly hit me sometime in the next few months. Until then, I just gotta try and keep my grades up in all my classes."

"Yeah, I need high grades to get into a job where I want to. I was trying to do this Charms essay, but I'm really not getting anywhere anytime soon."

"I've been trying to do that all day! Oh my God, isn't it just the most ridiculous thing you've ever encountered?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Hey, want to work on it now? We might be able to scrounge up something somewhat passable together."

So that's what we did for the next two hours, in between chattering about anything that came to mind. And at the end of that time, I felt sufficiently charmed by this boy.

* * *

><p>"LEE!" I screamed as I ran into the common room, startling my group of friends as they sat around the fire talking (probably about Quidditch, considering it had been two hours and they were all still dressed in their uniforms). Lee jumped slightly, before I threw myself on top of him on the couch and had the air knocked out of him.<p>

"I can't breathe-" he rasped, and I ignored him.

"LEE YOU WERE RIGHT HE GAVE ME HIS BOOK ON PURPOSE SO I'D HAVE TO GO TALK TO HIM! LEE YOU WERE RIGHT!"

Seeming to recover from the blow of me hitting him immediately, he sat up so quickly I almost fell off of him. "I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!"

Vaguely, I heard Angelina mutter "that smooth fucker. That one is going in the book for sure. Maybe she can drop a box of condoms and he returns them to her out of the kindness of his heart and she thanks him by-"

"Ew! Angelina! Come on, let's focus on a real life romance for a minute!" Alicia cried, before looking up at me excitedly.

"Wait, who are we talking about?" Katie asked, looking confused.

"Jason Dawes!"

Her jaw dropped. "THE JASON DAWES?! IS HE INTO YOU?!"

I shook my head in denial, even as a smile so large it was painful split across my face. "It's a platonic thing, I'm sure."

"Platonic?!" Lee scoffed. "I don't believe that for a god damned second! I heard him talking to one of his friends about you this morning, he's totally keen."

"Yeah, Breezy! Claim that!" Alicia cried. "He's gorgeous!"

"He's smart," Katie said approvingly.

"He's funny," Angelina added.

"I don't like him," Fred said darkly.

Simultaneously, we all turned to look at him.

"How could you _possibly _not like him?" Katie scoffed. "He's so friendly!"

"Fake friendliness, I think," Fred said, sounding completely convinced. "He's hiding something. I think he's bad news."

"He's perfect news," I sighed, flopping back off of Lee to lie back on the couch, missing as George frowned up at me and Fred frowned at him, both of them looking very unhappy about something.

* * *

><p>November 27th dawned dark and dreary. "As usual in England, then," I grumbled when I pulled myself out of bed, not expecting today to be at all enjoyable.<p>

I was pretty moody through breakfast about not celebrating Thanksgiving this year. When I was a little girl, my parents would take us kids down to watch the parades through the streets. Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas were my favorite time of the year because my parents would always make sure to take the time off of work to spend with us, and I loved that. Sam and I would help Mom with the cooking while Toby helped Dad with the decorating. Then, when we turned old enough to start school at Walden, there would always be a huge feast to celebrate, after which my friends and I would stay up late and continue the celebrations, because the holiday meant a lot to all of us. Even last year, we'd had a small celebration in the Walden carriage a few days before the first task. This would be the first year I didn't celebrate in some way, and it saddened me.

As if these facts weren't already downing my mood, I had the worst timetable imaginable. Two hours of Umbridge in the morning was almost unbearable. We'd all learnt to hold our tongues every time she announced at the beginning of the lesson "wands away, there will be no need to talk," and frankly nobody was even hopeful enough anymore to bother to get their wands out in the first place. I'd fallen so behind in the course load, we were meant to be on _Chapter 27: Theory: the New Practical Work,_ and I had been up _to Chapter 19: A Continuation of the Continuation of Basics for Beginners_ for about two weeks. It felt like no matter how hard Angelina and I tried, we just couldn't master this subject on our own; it was still months before the NEWT's begun, but we were beginning to feel pretty hopeless. Not only that, but Umbridge had begun quizzing us at the end of each lesson. I'd so far managed to avoid her questions, but just my luck that today I wasn't so lucky.

"Miss Montero," Umbridge called, after already questioning three Ravenclaw boys on the chapter. My stomach erupted into nervous butterflies and I stopped breathing. "Can you tell me what Mr Slinkhard says about Jinxes in this chapter?"

_Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck_. "I don't know, Professor," I said, so quietly it's a miracle she heard me.

I was staring at the desk in front of me, but I could hear the frown in her tone when she spoke again. "Miss Montero, it was at the beginning of the chapter."

"I'm not up to that chapter yet," I eventually replied, chancing a glance up at her.

She shook her head, a frown on her face. "That's very disappointing. I expected much better from you by this point, Miss Montero. Ten points from Gryffindor."

The air rushed out of me all at once, unbelievably relieved that the only thing she'd done was take points from my house. The bell rang then, and I hoisted myself to my feet, refusing to meet George's gaze as he stared down at me in concern.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur until I found myself in my last class of the day, Potions. I was hardly paying attention to the potion Snape had set us before he disappeared into his storeroom, apparently looking for something if the loud noises emerging from the room were any indication. After what felt like an eternity, the bell rang for the end of the lesson, and Snape emerged to observe all of our potions. He moved slowly through the rows, taking pleasure in keeping us stuck in the classroom past the lesson time slot. He eventually made his way to our row, and instead of passing my cauldron with a disappointed cluck of his tongue, he froze.

"Miss Montero," he said, capturing my attention with how surprised he sounded. "For the first time, you appear to have brewed the correct potion."

Victoria's jaw dropped from beside me. I would have been offended if I took the time to dwell on it, but instead I maintained eye contact with Snape, a wide grin splitting across my face.

"For real?!" I cried excitedly, and his lips pursed again.

"For real," he repeated mockingly, the casual phrase sounding unbelievably strange coming from the man. In any other class I would have expected points awarded for my success, but he merely continued along the row. Who gives a shit, I actually got the potion right!

When he eventually dismissed us, I was still in such a cheerful mood that I didn't even complain when George dragged me up to the library instead of heading straight to dinner in the Great Hall. This didn't last.

George, who was actually a very intelligent person, kept me in the library for over an hour (helping him with Transfiguration work he usually would have found easy), my stomach beginning to grumble more and more the longer we stayed there.

"I mean, I'm just not _getting_ it," George said, his tone laced with confusion, and I sighed, starting to explain the theory again, but trying to work out how to best appeal to his learning methods.

"I think you're making it too difficult," I said. "It's not a hard concept, but I think you're overcomplicating it. Just stick to the very basics, and you'll begin to understand it a bit easier."

That was when I heard a rumble of footsteps approaching, and a glance at my watch told me that we'd missed dinner. I barely stopped myself from groaning out loud; no matter how hungry I was, I wouldn't discourage George from learning. But George, at the sound of footsteps, sprung to his feet and snapped his books shut, a cheery grin on his face. "I think that's enough for now," he chirped, bending down to grab my hand and pull me to my feet. "We should go get some food from the kitchens, since we missed dinner."

"But, George, I think you were really close to getting it-" I argued, but he ignored me and continued pulling me through the corridors, passing a large crowd of Gryffindor's heading back to the common room. Eventually we reached the entrance to the kitchen, where he bent down and tickled the pear in the large painting concealing the room. The pear giggled, before the painting swung aside to allow us entrance, and George helped me climb up and through the small entrance.

"SURPRISE!"

I dropped back to my feet and looked up, startled by the yell. What I saw caused me to gasp loudly.

My friends and my brother all stood around the end of the Gryffindor table, staring at me and grinning widely. On the table lay plates full of food, the central element being a huge turkey. As I stared in surprise, they all chanted "Happy Thanksgiving, Bree!"

"No way!" I cried, feeling my eyes begin to water against my will. "Oh, you guys…"

George appeared at my side, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me towards the table. I turned to gape up at him, my surprise very clear in my expression, and he grinned.

"I learnt that spell for Transfiguration weeks ago," he laughed. "I just needed to keep you from eating with the rest of the school."

"Look what I made for you!" Lee cried, gesturing at the turkey. Everyone turned to stare at him with varying looks of disbelief, and he rolled his eyes. "Fine, the house elves made it. I asked them to, though, so really this whole thing comes back to me."

"I can't believe you guys did this…" I said, staring in awe down at the food as George pushed me to sit down and everyone followed suit.

"What's the deal here? I've never done this before," Katie said, smacking Ron's hand as he reached out towards the turkey. He pulled it back, shooting her a glare.

"Well basically, you gather together and say what you're thankful for, then share a meal with your friends and family," Sam said. "Who wants to start?"

"Oh, I will," Lee chirped excitedly. "I'm thankful that shorter skirts seem to be becoming a more fashionable thing these days- ow!"

Katie ignored his cry of pain when she slapped him, before speaking over him. "I'm thankful I'm not in seventh year yet, because you guys look like you're going through hell. I'm thankful that Bree's cat seems to like me more than he likes her, because I love that little guy."

I rolled my eyes, but stayed silent. Felix did seem to enjoy Katie's presence more than mine these days.

"I'm thankful for that time Malfoy got turned into a ferret," Ron said, seeming to be relishing in the memory, even as I rolled my eyes."That memory will comfort me until the day I die."

We all looked at Sam expectantly, although Lee still looked sort of unhappy his speech had been cut short and we'd allowed Ron's his.

"I'm thankful my plans of finishing school at the place where I began were derailed. Because although that plan went out the window and it felt like the end of the world, I'm thankful I ended up here," Sam said, smiling slowly.

Slowly, we went through everyone, until it was my turn.

"I'm thankful…" I began, staring around at all of my friends as my smile grew. "I am thankful for every single one of you. You guys are my family now, and I feel really lucky to have you."

"Oh, Bree, that's beautiful. I'm blushing," George joked, grinning. "I'm thankful for…" he began, considering his options, looking down at me after a moment. "I'm thankful you moved here from America. You've definitely changed our lives. Both of you."

I felt a wide smile come onto my face as I leant into him more and Katie made a loud noise of agreement. The others nodded, and I saw Sam glance around at these people, wearing the same thankful expression I'm sure was on my own face.

"And now do we eat?" George asked, and I nodded.

"Excellent!" Lee cried, immediately pulling the bowl of stuffed potatoes towards him. I had to commend the house elves for their effort; the meal was absolutely delicious, and soon enough I was stuffed. We all drifted into our own conversations around the time we started eating the pumpkin pie, and it wasn't long before Harry leant over the table from where he sat across from me and spoke, his voice very quiet.

"You know, the Defense Against the Dark Arts group was Hermione's idea, and at first I hated it. You were the one who convinced me to go along with it."

"Me?" I repeated in surprise, my eyes widening. "How did I do that?"

"It was what you said the other night. You said… that you think Hogwarts is a place where we should feel safe, but with Umbridge here, nobody does. You said that you wished there was something you could do to feel less defenseless."

I bit my lip, remembering my words from the other night. "Well, yeah, but… I'm just… I'm not sure about this… if she found out…"

Harry stared at me for a moment, a look of realization crossing his face.

"You're scared of her, aren't you?"

"What?!" I cried. "Of course I'm not!"

But even as I scoffed at him in denial, I remembered earlier in her classroom, how I has subconsciously held my breath, had been unable to meet her gaze head on. I remembered that every time I passed her in the halls I quickened my pace, and I realized with a shock that I was bloody terrified of Dolores Umbridge.

I wasn't weak. _I wasn't. _But God, who was this person I had begun to turn into? Only a few weeks ago, I had been determined to stick up for Harry at every turn, had been fully prepared to argue that You-Know-Who had returned until I was blue in the face. And now I shied away at the very mention.

I felt completely disgusted with myself. And what had turned me into this person? A few cuts on the hand? The cuts were nothing, facing Umbridge was _nothing_, not in the long run. Slowly, I clenched my fists at my side, and I looked up at Harry with renewed energy. The sickly, ghastly smile on her face every time she looked at me said clear as day "I've won, and I know it." But she hadn't. She wouldn't win. She didn't deserve it.

So I looked Harry right in the end, and said firmly "Tell me when and where and I'll be there."

* * *

><p><strong>Hey guys! I wasn't sure how this one was gonna turn out, but I'm super excited to start developing Jason- and of course, George's displeasure at Jason's presence. I wanted to let you all know I'll be skewing the timeline of the book a bit- there won't be any Quidditch until after the Christmas holidays, and other small things. Hope you enjoyed this one, and happy holidays!<strong>


	22. The Dangers of the Friend Zone

The morning of our first Hogsmeade visit dawned bright and windy. I wrapped myself in a warm jumper before heading down to breakfast to join the twins with Katie, who was chattering about restocking her candy supplies from Honeydukes.

"I _need _this," she said firmly when we had finished eating our toast. "I'm so stressed about failing Umbridge's classes I ran out of my chocolate stash after two weeks of school. I ran out of yours and Angelina's like a week later-"

"That was _you_?!" I snapped, turning to gape at her. "I thought Felix got into it!"

She smiled unabashedly, not at all phased by giving up her secret. "Sorry?"

"Stay out of my candy, Bell! You aren't the only one failing a class, but you _are_ the only one not doing the NEWT's this year!" I snapped, and she was about to reply when a hand dropped down onto my shoulder. Startled, I jumped slightly before turning to see Jason standing behind me.

"Bit jumpy, aren't you?" he joked, shooting me a wide smile. "A few of my friends and I were just about to head down to Hogsmeade," he said, his voice lowering when he realized that every single person sitting by me at the Gryffindor table was eavesdropping on us. "I was wondering if you'd like to come with us."

"That's so nice!" Fred burst out loudly from the other side of the table, standing up and pulling his scarf tighter around his throat. "We were just about to head down to the village!"

"Oh, um…" Jason faltered slightly under Fred's stare, looking like he was just daring Jason to tell him he couldn't come. "Great. That's really great, Fred."

Fred cheerfully ignored the vicious glare I was sending him as he grabbed his brother's coat and pulled George to his feet. Standing, I gave Jason an apologetic smile as we begun to walk out of the Hall. He just shrugged, before extending his arm for me to take like a gentleman. A small, nervous smile flitted across my face and I was about to lace my arm through his when suddenly, I was shoved roughly in the shoulder when Fred barged between us, grabbing my arm and wrapping it through his.

Completely frustrated (God, I hadn't even been awake half an hour yet, I shouldn't have to put up with this shit), I went to yank my arm away from him, but his grip tightened as he begun whistling cheerily. "Hogsmeade bound, we are!" he sang, grinning down at me and then down at Jason.

We met a few of Jason's friends at the door, some of which I recognized from when I'd spent time with them and Cedric (though I hardly knew any of their names after so long). They all looked a bit surprised at the presence of the Weasley's and Katie, but didn't say anything.

"Hey! What's going on here?!" An enthusiastic voice called from behind us. Turning, I saw Lee practically skipping down the stairs, and heard Jason sigh quietly but exasperatedly, and I very nearly mirrored his actions. Lee's strangeness and Fred's apparent need to chaperone me was not what I needed when Jason had shown a clear interest in accompanying me to Hogsmeade.

"Lee!" Fred called, grinning. "We're going to Hogsmeade! Join us?"

"Love to!" he cried, grinning and approaching us. Katie glanced at me oddly as I caught her gaze, widening my eyes and motioning to Fred, signaling for her help. For some reason, George steadily refused to meet my gaze, and Lee was grinning along with Fred now, so it was clear they weren't going to help me escape- Katie seemed to be my only option. "You know, Freddie, Bree is still relatively new to the wonders of Hogsmeade. Maybe we should give her a quick history lesson?"

As I drifted closer to Jason, Fred yanked me back against his side, knocking the wind out of me. "I am so glad you suggested that, Lee!" he cried enthusiastically.

The rest of the very, very long walk down to Hogsmeade was taken up with Fred and Lee giving me a very long, very detailed history of the Wizard village, and why there weren't more non-muggle settlements in Britain. I could tell, as could everyone else, that more than half of it was made up.

One of Jason's friends, who introduced himself as Dan before we left the school, led us to the sweet shop. Just as we were heading in, I jumped suddenly to the left, ensuring that as I passed through the door, Fred smacked into the doorframe face first. Finally having all my limbs back to myself, I grinned victoriously and darted as far away from him as possible before he entered the shop.

As Jason appeared at my side, Fred finally entered the shop, glaring darkly at me as he rubbed his reddening forehead. I couldn't help the victorious grin that came to my face.

A laugh erupted by my shoulder, and I turned to see Katie slapping Dan lightly on the arm. "Oh, you're so funny, Dan!" she giggled over-exaggeratedly, and Dan looked immensely pleased with himself. I barely refrained from rolling my eyes when I saw Lee giving her the thumbs up from behind Dan's back.

"Hey, why don't we go exploring the village?" Lee suggested cheerily.

"We could go and see the Shrieking Shack," a bespectacled, dark haired boy suggested. "They say it's the most haunted building in Br-"

"The most haunted building in Britain, yes, we know," George finished in a bored tone, chewing on some licorice. "It doesn't seem that interesting considering we see ghosts every day in the place we go to school."

"These aren't friendly ghosts, these are vengeful spirits!" the boy defended crossly, pushing his glasses further up his face and glaring at George.

"Yeah, like the Bloody Baron. Seems like a poor pastime trying to catch sight of a vengeful spirit to me," Fred said, turning to look at a rack of sweets. As soon as his back was turned, I grabbed Jason and Katie's hands, pulling them out the door and into the street. Katie ducked back in and dragged out a surprised looking Dan.

"Right! Who wants to go to the Three Broomsticks for a drink?" I asked cheerily, and Jason nodded enthusiastically. Dan glanced back into the sweet shop where the boy with the glasses was now arguing with Fred and George, who both remained unaware of our absence.

"They're casualties of war," Katie said firmly, referencing the five or so of Dan and Jason's friends still in the shop. "Their sacrifice to the Weasley twins won't be forgotten."

The day passed too quickly after that. The Three Broomsticks was reasonably full, but the four of us found a table at the back corner of the room where we could all squeeze in cozily. Dan was a really friendly guy who easily made conversation. Eventually he mentioned that he had been to America on holiday recently and had loved it, and eagerly listened as I talked about my experiences growing up in such a vastly different culture to the one I now found myself in. Jason asked a lot of questions and seemed genuinely interested, in much the same way I was when I asked the three of them about growing up in England. Dan's father, as it turns out, works with Jason's at the Ministry, and the boys had grown up very close. They had a wonderful dynamic, continually bouncing ideas off of each other and joking around- it was fun to watch.

Jason was a real charmer. When you talked, he gave you his full attention, leaning forwards slightly and looking as though he was hanging off your every word. We were like that, leaning close as I told him a story about my brothers from my childhood when suddenly, Katie let out a loud gasp. Turning away from the boy in front of me, I saw Katie staring down at her watch, before dragging her eyes up to meet mine. I glanced down at my own watch, realizing with a start that we were due at the Hogs Head for the meeting five minutes ago.

I turned back to Jason, only then realizing how close together we'd drifted as we spoke, and quickly lost my train of thought.

"Oh, boys, I'm so sorry!" Katie exclaimed. "Bree and I have to run, we- uh- we promised we'd meet Alicia to- uh- help her shop."

I winced at Katie's terrible excuse, but reasoned that it was better than anything I could have come up with. Lying was a talent I completely lacked.

"That's a shame," Jason said, his entire face falling. "Are you sure you can't stay for a bit longer?"

I was about to tell him that yes, of course I could, when I remembered myself. This meeting was more important than a boy, no matter how charming that boy may be. "I'm afraid I can't, but I'm sure I'll see you soon."

I pulled myself to my feet as Dan spoke. "This has been a lot of fun. We'll have to do something similar soon."

"That sounds wonderful," I agreed, shooting Jason a small wave as Katie and I turned to leave. As soon as we were out the door, Katie gripped my hand and squealed.

"Oh my God, Breezy, they're wonderful! I mean, originally I was only there to live vicariously through your blossoming romance with Jason, but Dan is _perfect_!"

I giggled and was about to respond when the clock tower at the end of the street chimed, reminding me of where we were meant to be. Apparently it reminded Katie too, because she gripped my hand tighter and took off running up the street around the same time I did. We were heading somewhere called the Hogs Head, which neither of us had never been to before, and so as a result we had to stop and ask some of the townsfolk which pushed us back a further five minutes. Eventually, we found it, but came to a halt outside the doors when we saw the rickety sign, the filthy windows, and the rotting wood of the generally dilapidated looking building.

"Are you sure this is the right spot?" Katie asked suspiciously, and I shrugged. Only one way to find out.

I pushed the door open, and immediately everyone's eyes turned to face us. Immediately, I did a double take- when Hermione had said this meeting was only going to be with 'a few people,' she was lying through her teeth. The tavern was pretty much full.

"Sorry," Katie cried, pulling me to sit next to the Weasley twins, who I cheerfully ignored. Hermione had only just stood up to speak when we entered.

"It's alright, you haven't missed anything. We were just about to start," Hermione said, sounding nervous. She turned to the group gathered around her and took a deep breath in. "Hello."

She fell silent then, until Lee happily chanted back "Hi!" and sounding totally unaware of the tense silence hanging in the air.

"Well… erm… you all know why you're here. Harry had the idea-" Harry threw her a sharp look and she changed track, "-_I_ had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts- and I mean really study it, not the rubbish Umbridge has us doing- well, I thought it would be good if we took matters into our own hands. Because nobody can call what she's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts."

As she spoke, her voice seemed to gather strength as her confidence grew.

"We need a real teacher… someone whose had real experience with this sort of stuff. I want to be properly trained to defend myself, because…" she seemed to steel herself for what she was about to say. "Because Lord Voldemort is back."

Against my own will, I flinched, as did several others. One boy nearly fell off his chair after jumping so strongly. One boy did not react physically, but rather verbally.

"Where's the proof of that?" he drawled in an overly obnoxious voice.

Hermione didn't look as taken aback as I'm sure I did. This dude was upfront rude.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it-"

"You mean, Dumbledore believes _him_. Where's the proof?" the boy said scathingly, nodding at Harry. "I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say that You-Know-Who's back."

"What makes you think you have the right to anything?" Sam snapped, glaring viciously at him. "That's not what we're here for; feel free to leave if it doesn't suit you."

Harry looked up suddenly, and I knew that he was realizing the same thing that I was. The way they'd all perked up at this boy's words told me that there were so many people at this gathering, not because they were eager to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts, but because they wanted to hear the sordid details of You-Know-Who's return- and with it, Cedric's death.

I didn't want to know the details of Cedric's death. I knew I didn't. Or at least… that was what I told myself, even as I held my breath in anticipation as Harry opened his mouth to speak.

"What makes me say that You-Know-Who's back?" he repeated, refusing to break contact with the golden haired boy. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me. I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

The boy scoffed dismissively, and really quite rudely. "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, and I think we'd all like to know-"

"What? You'd like to know exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone? No, I can't help you with that," Harry snapped back, his entire body tensing as his anger visibly mounted. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, so if that's what you're here for, you may as well clear off right now."

He had gotten to his feet and looked about ready to flee the scene, when a misty sort of a voice floated forward from behind me.

"Is it true you can produce a Patronus charm?"

I turned, as did everyone else, to see a pretty blonde girl wearing the most peculiar set of earrings. They looked like radishes, and clashed wonderfully with her aqua jumper and pink jeans. She didn't turn at the attention's sudden shift to her, but rather kept her eyes on Harry.

When it became apparent that Harry was struggling for words, Hermione spoke up. "Yes," she said calmly. "I've seen it."

"Blimey, Harry," Dean breathed out in awe. "I didn't know you could do that!"

"And- and did you really kill the basilisk with the sword in Dumbledore's office?" demanded the dark haired boy sitting rather close to Ginny. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year…"

"Er," Harry stuttered out, his ears turning red as a clear testament to how unsure he was with this sudden change in the tone of the meeting. "I mean, yeah. I did, yeah…"

Wait. A basilisk? Isn't that a giant snake? Damn, what sort of weird assed shit was going on at this school before I arrived? This thought was only reinforced when Neville mentioned that Harry had protected the Philosophers Stone from You-Know-Who in his first year. I mean, I thought You-Know-Who had been gone until last year, but frankly I learnt a long time ago to just roll with the punches when it came to Harry Potter.

Who was beginning to look absolutely petrified, now I took the time to notice. "Look," he said, and everyone immediately fell silent. "It all sounds great when you say it like that… and I don't want to sound modest or anything, but I had a lot of help with all that stuff."

"Not with all of it," the boy next to Ginny piped up again. "Like last year, when you took on that dragon. That was some seriously impressive flying."

I nodded my agreement, as did several others.

"Well, I mean… I know I did some of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is-"

"Are you trying to weasel your way out of showing us any of this stuff?" the blonde boy from before piped up, in the same patronizing tone. "Because if so-"

"Oh my God, can you keep your mouth shut for five minutes?" I groaned, glaring at him strongly when his eyes snapped to meet mine. "The next time you speak, you can get the fuck out. Okay?"

My proclamation gathered a few surprised stares; possibly because most of them had never heard me say anything so rude before, but I couldn't help it. Harry didn't need any more shit, especially not from this idiot.

The golden haired boy flushed. "Well- I mean- we've all shown up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it!"

"That's not what he said," George snapped, before I could speak up again.

"Would you like us to clean your ears out for you?" Fred enquired, pulling a long and pretty lethal looking metal instrument from inside one of the many Zonko's bags surrounding him and his brother.

"Or any part of your body, really. We're not particularly fussy where we stick this," George said, and the boy looked scared silent from this.

"Uh, moving on," Hermione eventually said slowly, "the point is… do we all agree we'd like to take lessons from Harry?"

And with that, it was decided. Everyone nodded their agreement, but became less enthused when it came time to choose a time slot for our defense meeting.

Angelina, with her common one track mind, piped up "we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice!" and several others voiced their agreement. It became apparent very quickly that it was going to be hard to find a time slot that suited everyone, and nobody quite knew of a place we could go after I voiced the opinion that Umbridge wouldn't be too peachy keen if she found out what we were doing.

"I'm sure we'll find something that will suit everybody," Hermione said dismissively, as she pulled a piece of parchment out of her bag. When she spoke again, she was much more hesitant. "I- I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think that we should agree not to shout about what we're doing. If you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anyone else what we're up to."

Within a second, George reached out, took the parchment and signed his name, his twin following along after. Without any hesitation, I signed the parchment once they handed it to me, before leaning back, staring down the golden haired boy, and thrusting the parchment in his face.

He stared down at it as though it was going to bite him. "Er… well… I'm sure Ernie will tell me when the meeting is…" he excused, but the boy next to him who I assumed was Ernie looked just as hesitant.

I raised my eyebrows at him, and he stuttered out "I- but- well, we're _prefects!_ If this list was found…"

"Oh, Ernie, do you really think I'm stupid enough to leave this list laying around?" Hermione asked testily, and he shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh- no, of course not," he said slowly. "I- well, oh, alright, I'll sign."

Nobody put up any objection after that, though I did notice one girl sitting with Cho looking very displeased to be signing her name. After the last person-the golden haired boy- signed his name and handed the piece of parchment back to Hermione, George got to his feet.

"Well, time's ticking on," he said briskly, as Fred and Lee followed his motion and gathered the bags around them. He glanced down at me and extended his hand to pull me to my feet. "Bree, come on-"

I scoffed, smacking his hand away and getting to my feet on my own. "I don't think so," I snapped icily, striding straight past him as I exited the Hogs Head, only pausing to shoot Harry and Sam a smile over my shoulder.

"Oh- Bree- _come on_- don't be like that!" he called, hurrying to catch up with me as I strode back to the main streets. It didn't take him long- after all, his legs were significantly longer than mine. "Don't be grumpy, please!"

"I have every right to be grumpy!" I snapped, spinning around to glare at him, and he actually took a step back when he realized how serious I was. "You and your brother tried to ruin a perfectly nice date with Jason!"

"Well- I mean- a _date_?" he repeated in disbelief, and if anything this heightened my anger. What, did he think I couldn't get a date with a guy like Jason?

"Well- yeah! Not an official one, but it could've turned into one! And you tried to ruin it!" I cried, and very suddenly, his expression turned to one of anger.

"Hm, well you managed to ditch us to spend time with him in the end. Sorry to intrude upon even a moment of your time with Prince Charming," he snapped icily, before turning and stalking away from me towards the main street.

For a moment, I just gaped after him. "YOU ARE NOT FORGIVEN!" I eventually managed to screech after him, kicking snow in the direction he'd left in and looking to all the world like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

That was around the time the rest of our friends stopped by my side, and I spun around angrily. "He has no right to be angry with me!" I spluttered furiously to Katie, but she didn't respond. "_I _have the right to be angry!"

Fred just shook his head, and actually had the audacity to roll his eyes at me. "God, you're so clueless," he muttered, before following in the direction that George had taken off in.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" I called after him. When I didn't get a response, I stomped my foot angrily and turned to stalk away in the opposite direction. Fuck them both, then!

* * *

><p>Things were tense for the next few days between the twins and myself. Fred had been the main instigator of the issue, but for some reason George was the angry one. I determinedly maintained that he had nothing to be angry about, and Fred just rolled his eyes every time we gave each other the silent treatment, looking as though there was something I was missing, which just angered me more.<p>

But then, a week later, we were united once again by a common enemy.

_BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS_

_All student organizations, societies, teams, groups and clubs are henceforth disbanded. These are all defined as a regular meeting of three or more students._

_Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor. None may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor. _

_Any student found to have formed or belong to one that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled. _

_The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four._

_Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor. _

There was a tense silence in the Entrance Hall as we all observed the newest order hanging from the wall. Then, very suddenly, Lee burst out "Fuck her!" and the spell broke.

Everyone around us spread into their own conversations about the latest notice, as I grimly turned to Sam.

"There's no way in hell that's a coincidence," I said quietly, and he nodded slowly.

"She has to know. Or, at least have a vague idea this is happening. But _how_?"

"I don't trust that twerp Zacharias Smith," George said firmly, suddenly appearing at my side as he mentioned the rude golden haired boy from the meeting, whose name I had recently learned. "If anyone told, I think it would be him."

"Well, I definitely see where you're coming from, but I don't want to jump down anyone's throat for being a traitor if there's no evidence they've done anything," Sam said thoughtfully. "I'll go talk to Harry, Ron and Hermione and then get back to you. This will have undoubtedly scared some people off."

He turned then and walked back up the stairs towards Gryffindor tower, as we turned the opposite way to head into the Great Hall.

"It probably was Zacharias Smith," I said slowly by way of apology, and he smiled softly down at me. And that was that.

Both our smiles fell when we reached the Gryffindor table.

"No, no, no, I'm _telling_ you," Lee was saying to the people sitting around him. "My Grandpa is a total muggle history buff and he has all these books on the subject. Dolores Umbridge is the next Adolf Hitler!"

"Oh, Lee!" I groaned, not even able to place what emotion I should settle on for this announcement. In the end, I just let him continue talking as I piled up my plate with eggs and toast. He was a natural born bullshitter; stopping him would be cruel.

It wasn't even five minutes later that the full repercussions of Umbridge's notice became apparent, as Angelina came sprinting into the Great Hall like a mad woman. When she reached us, she was completely flushed and panting as though she'd sprinted all the way here from the common room. She probably did.

"She's including Quidditch in this!" she cried desperately, looking close to tears. "We have to go and ask permission to re-form the Gryffindor team!"

"WHAT!" the twins yelled simultaneously, jumping to their feet as Alicia paled and Katie let out a loud gasp. Then, a second later, Lee yelled even louder than the first time, "FUCK HER!" as I silently thanked God that there weren't more teachers in the Great Hall to overhear (the only one was Sprout, and she only glanced up, looking bored before going back to her porridge. She probably assumed who he was talking about and silently agreed).

"No!" Katie breathed, and then started up a chant. "No, no, no, no, there's no way… no, no, no…"

"Merlin- you read the sign, it mentions teams too!" she cried, panicked.

"She can't do this!" George cried, looking as close to tears as Angelina did by this point.

"Hey, no- you're right, she _can't _do this," I said firmly, calling their attention to me. "Quidditch is an important school event- there's no way Dumbledore would allow her to cancel it because of her power trip. You just need to calm down and go see Professor Umbridge and ask to start the team back up as soon as possible."

Angelina nodded, looking sort of dazed. "Umbridge- right, yeah… right…" she managed to breath out, before turning on her heel to hunt the woman down. Meanwhile, Katie looked like she was about to have a panic attack.

"Oh, that horrible old toad… she can't take Quidditch away, she just can't!" she cried, and Alicia patted her shoulder comfortingly. I didn't see Angelina for the rest of the day, though I had at least two members of the Quidditch team in every one of my classes. I confidently assured them that there would be no problem with restarting the team, and even managed to calm some of them down.

That is, until I was proven ludicrously wrong that night in the common room.

I was sitting in front of the fire with my friends and Sam's friends when the common room door swung open and Angelina trudged through. She looked totally dazed, as though someone had punched her and she was still gathering her wits back. She didn't say anything until she sunk down onto the couch beside me, hardly seeming to realize what she was doing.

"No Quidditch practice," she said in a hollow tone. "She just- she said she needed a bit of time to consider."

"Consider what?!" Ron demanded furiously, his loud tone startling a group of second years sitting in the corner. "She gave the Slytherin's permission immediately, so why not us?!"

I thought I knew why. Since starting at Hogwarts, she'd faced the most resistance from the Gryffindor's. I could imagine that she would enjoy holding the threat of no Quidditch over our heads.

It was another one of her games. Another one of the power plays she seemed to enjoy so much.

"Look on the bright side!" Hermione eventually said cheerily. "Now you'll have much more time to focus on your homework!"

The twins groaned simultaneously. Nobody else deigned her with a response, though Harry did shoot her a rather vicious glare.

As the majority of the people I was close to at this school were Quidditch enthusiasts, they were all in very low spirits for the next few days. The twins threw themselves into perfecting some different products now that the Skiving Snackboxes were close to being finished, and as such fell fairly behind in most of their subjects by the end of the next week. I agreed to help George write his Charms essay in the library, and that was where I sat on Thursday afternoon. When the chair across from me moved suddenly, I looked up expecting to see a mop of flaming red hair, and was pleasantly surprised when instead I found a golden blonde haired boy taking the chair opposite me.

"Jason," I greeted with a wide grin as he put his books on the table in front of him.

"I hope you don't mind if I join you?" he inquired, and I shook my head.

"Not at all."

* * *

><p>Across the room, Lee and George entered the library to see Jason sitting down next to Bree.<p>

"I hope you don't mind if I join you?" he inquired, and George clenched his fists tighter around where they grasped his books before turning and leaving the library, stalking back up to the common room. Diligently (and not all too concerned about where they headed, it wouldn't affect his lack of motivation to do his homework), Lee followed him, entering the empty common room when George had already flopped down on the couch and spread his books out.

Sighing, Lee flopped down on the armchair across from the redhead, leaning over and slamming his Charms book shut only a second after he opened it.

George looked up at him suspiciously, and Lee made sure to catch his eye before he spoke.

"You need to make your move."

George looked genuinely surprised. "…pardon me?"

"You heard me loud and clear, Weasley. Don't play dumb; you know exactly what I'm talking about. We both saw her getting all cozy with Jason Dawes just now," Lee said flatly, and George ducked his head when his ears flushed red.

"Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

"You don't need to deny it; we all know how into her you are," Lee said flatly, rolling his eyes when George simply shook his head again. Ignoring his continued denial, he advised "you can't afford to wait any longer; you're already dangerously deep in the friend zone."

George looked like he was about to defend himself when the last phrase caught his attention. Curiously, and knowing he'd probably regret it, he asked "What's the friend zone?"

"The friend zone is a dangerous zone where self-respecting men go to die. Basically, when you enter that zone, you're no longer considered as a potential boyfriend and/or sex object. Shit, we may as well be one of the girls- and _you,_ my friend, have fallen very, very deeply into the friend zone," Lee said ominously.

They sat in silence for a moment, as George considered his statement. He was about to speak when a large grin flitted across Lee's face, and he exclaimed "But never fear, my dear friend! I have devised an unfailing three step plan to rectify the situation when one finds themselves in your position!"

George let out a huff. He wanted to tell Lee to shove his three step plan and deny knowing what he was talking about at all, but when it came down to it, Lee had more experience with the situation George found himself in. Neither of the twins were particularly failing in the dating department, but Lee was a womanizer, and so against his better judgment, George nodded for him to continue.

"Step one: you have to stop being so friendly."

Considering this for a moment, George eventually asked "but wouldn't that totally defeat the purpose?"

"Right now, you're her confidant. Everyone knows that when she has a problem, you're the first person she goes to. You're in a rut; she simultaneously trusts you too much and not enough," Lee said in a tone that proclaimed he thought his advice was unquestionable. "Start being meaner and she'll soon stop looking at you as a friend. The ruder you are, the better. It shines you in a whole new light; you become the rude boy, the _bad boy,_ and all the girls_ love_ a bad boy."

Lee winked as though he'd just revealed some huge secret, as George continued to stare at him. "Lee, that sounds so ridic-"

"Step two!" the dark skinned boy once again interrupted. "Comment on other girls appearances all the time. _All the time!_ It'll make her so jealous when you show her that other girls can still draw your attention when she's around."

"I don't want to make her jealous! Why would I want to do that?!" George yelped. "And besides, we both know its bullshit anyway; I haven't noticed another girl in months."

Lee paused in his description of his three step plan, merely observing George for a moment. "God, you are _ridiculously_ whipped," he eventually said, sounding sort of disgusted, and George just sighed and nodded, rubbing his forehead tiredly. He definitely knew it.

"Well, step three is the one for you, then," Lee said bracingly. "Step three: sweep her off her feet. By this stage in my unfailing program, she's noticed that you aren't just a friend, and she's becoming jealous that you're noticing other girls. She is officially ready to be woo-ed."

Trying not to laugh, the ginger haired boy raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Woo-ed?" he repeated.

Lee didn't seem to pick up on George's mocking tone. He only nodded, sending George a wink, before repeating "Woo-ed."

There was a pause in the conversation where Lee allowed Fred to soak up his words of wisdom. And then, very suddenly-

"That's the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard," George said flatly.

Lee almost gasped. "How dare you! Don't insult the program, it's 100% effective!"

"I don't see where you're getting your statistics, considering you've never had a girlfriend who could hold your interest for longer than a day."

"Oh, no, everyone knows I'm not a guy who's too fond of commitment. But the program sets her up to be keen for a hook up, and that's what you want, isn't it?"

George's head shot up to look at Lee in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? That is so not what I want! I don't want to ruin my friendship with her for a fucking hook up; it's not worth it! I'd rather be stuck in the friend zone with Bree than not have her at all."

At this, Lee shot up from where he had been slouching against the back of the couch. "A-ha!" he yelled, an excited grin on his face. "So you finally admit it! You admit you want Bree to be your girlfriend!"

George looked horrified with himself. "I- no! No! I didn't say that! You heard me wrong!" he cried, trying to cover up his mistake, but clearly admitting his failure when Lee just continued grinning. With a huff, he picked up his Charms textbook and threw it at Lee, where it hit him in the chest.

Immediately, Lee lived up to his reputation of having a short attention span and seemed to forget what they were talking about altogether. "Don't push me!" he snapped, picking up the book and throwing it back at George, who caught it easily. With a grin at how much he was annoying Lee, he threw the book back at him, and hit him once again. In a second, Lee had thrown the book to the side and thrown himself at George, punching him hard in the shoulder.

Immaturely, George pushed Lee off of him and onto the ground, where he then jumped on him and punched him back. This continued, the two of them rolling awkwardly around on the floor, until the portrait hole opened without either of them noticing and a pair of shoes came to stop right by their heads. Simultaneously, they stopped pushing each other and looked up to see Bree standing above them, her eyebrows raised.

"If you guys want to experiment sexually, please do it somewhere less public," she eventually said, and they both seemed to realize how compromising it looked with Lee straddling George as he was. Immediately, George shoved him off of him and shot to his feet, clearing his throat awkwardly as Lee followed him to his feet.

"Thank you for the advice, Bree, we will make sure to do that," Lee said, cackling loudly when George shoved him so hard he flopped right back down onto the floor. Bree rolled her eyes good-naturedly, before turning and heading towards her dormitory room, humming a cheerful tune. Meanwhile, George watched her go with sad eyes. She only hummed when she was ecstatically happy, and apparently, that was what Jason Dawes made her.

…

The next two weeks passed relatively smoothly. For me, I mean. The Quidditch team (and Lee) were completely down in the dumps all week, and both Hermione and Sam were pretty depressed about the roadblock we'd encountered in regards to our Defense Group. I'd sat down with them recently and tried to brainstorm areas where we could all meet in secret, but our knowledge of the school just wasn't great enough. We'd soon consulted the twins, but even they weren't sure where we could fit twenty-eight people without any suspicion. And so, we were stuck.

Things got worse the closer to the Quidditch season we got. The Hufflepuff's and Slytherin's were all training like crazy for the first game of the season, and often Angelina would just glare down at the Quidditch pitch instead of doing her homework. She'd also been back-chatting in Umbridge's class like crazy until I reminded her that getting on the woman's bad side wasn't the way to get her team back. At this, she'd thrown her books down, stomped out of the common room and down to McGonagall's office, muttering that "she'll sort this bitch out quick smart" and that Umbridge was lucky she didn't show her "what Grand Mama taught" her… Whatever the hell that means.

And so, though this may be surprising, I think when Gryffindor's Quidditch rights were reinstated, I may have been the most glad. My friends were moody as hell when they couldn't take their frustrations out on that pitch. We all knew the moment Umbridge had given her permission, because Angelina sprinted into the common room with the biggest grin I'd seen from her in weeks.

"I've got permission!" she cried. "We can reform the team!"

"Oh, thank God!" I responded so happily that everyone turned to look at me curiously.

"Er- that's fantastic!" George eventually said, drawing everyone's attention back to Angelina. "Why did she crack?"

"I went to McGonagall the other day and she was bloody furious that we were being held back while the other teams were all practicing. I think she appealed to Dumbledore, and the old bloody bat had to give in. HA! Take that, Umbridge!" she cried giddily.

Vaguely, I wondered how the solid reminder that Dumbledore could easily overpower her would sit with her newfound addiction to controlling everyone and everything around here, but dismissed it when Katie let out a hoot and announced this deserved a celebration.

Soon enough, another snippet of good news fell into our laps. Not even an hour later as we all waited for Flitwick to let us into Charms, Sam popped up at my side. His eyes were bright and his movements just screamed that he was repressing enthusiasm for something. We only had to wait the length of time it took for him to glance around cautiously before he turned and let us all in on what had him so eager when he'd spent the past two weeks moping.

"The group is on. Hermione worked it all out; the first meeting is 7 o'clock Friday night."

* * *

><p><strong>I really like this chapter! Next up, the DA starts.<strong>


	23. Lee Jordan: the Love Guru

_SLAM!_

I shot up with a start from where I'd been resting my head on my books (instead of using them to study) with a yelp, only to see Angelina standing across from us, her hands resting on the Gryffindor table where she had just slammed them down. It only took me a second to register her vicious glare.

"You took it," she hissed, and I followed her gaze to see it was levelled on Katie. "You _took _it!"

Katie looked as confused as Alicia and I were. "Woah, what are you-"

"YOU TOOK MY NEW DRESS!" She shouted so suddenly I jumped again, and I felt Alicia and Katie do the same beside me.

"_What?!_"

Slamming her hands back down on the table angrily, she cried "You always take my stuff! _Always_! Without asking! You take my stuff and you don't give it back and I'm so fucking sick of it, I'm not putting up with your thievery any more, Bell!"

Katie narrowed her eyes. "I don't quite like the tone that you're taking with me, Johnson!"

"This is an interrogation, I'll talk to the perpetrator any way that I want!"

This time, Katie shot to her feet, in an obvious attempt to get to Angelina's eye level. Angelina just had to straighten up to once again tower over tiny Katie, but nonetheless, Katie held her stare.

"I don't have your damn dress!"

"GIVE IT BACK!"

"I DON'T HAVE IT!"

Angelina let out a cry of anger, before turning and stalking out of the Hall. Katie dropped back down into her seat, glaring at Angelina's back as she grumbled to herself. Soon enough, she tore her gaze away from the retreating girl, and that was when she noticed Alicia and I staring at her from either of her sides.

"What?"

I cleared my throat. "Uh… _do you _have her dress?"

"I DON'T HAVE HER FUCKING DRESS!"

* * *

><p>What I thought was going to be a grudge that lasted an hour at best actually lasted… well, much longer. So far it's been about three days. At first when the two girls ended up together, they would ignore each other. Then, came the sly comments.<p>

"Bree! Oh my God, where did you get those shoes?"

I glanced down at my worn out converse. "Uh, I think I've had them for like two years? I wear them all the time. I think I bought them from a cheap store by my house in America…"

"Oh? So you bought them?" Angelina asked, and it took me a moment too long to realize what was going on. "That's really excellent. See, some people are responsible and like to purchase their clothing, but others are hooligans and just like to steal from their friends. How pathetic, right?"

"I agree, Bree, those are really cute shoes," Katie spoke up from where she sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. "But you know what's really pathetic? Accusing someone of a crime they didn't commit, especially if that person if your friend!"

Angelina shot up off the couch. "Don't be so fucking petulant Katie, I know that you have it!"

Katie was on her feet a second later. "Are you sure you're not just forgetful as well as completely rude? Because wherever it is, it aint with me!"

Letting out a cry of anger, Angelina turned and stormed out of the common room. Katie followed her lead a second later, storming up the stairs to her dormitory.

Lee was staring after Katie, his mouth gaping open in confusion. Sadly, I glanced over at Alicia.

"Neither of them really like my shoes, do they?"

She shook her head. "Afraid not, hon."

From his perch in front of the fire, I lowly heard Lee mutter to himself, "bloody women…" He seemed to know instinctively that if he asked for an explanation he wouldn't get an adequate one.

This sort of behavior continued until they just plain refused to spend any time together. This culminated on Friday evening, when the first of our meetings was going to be held and they refused to travel the few corridors between our common room and the meeting place together. Lee had to leave early with Katie when she made it clear she didn't want to be around Angelina.

"Don't you think this whole thing is getting a bit out of hand?" Alicia asked timidly, and Angelina shot a glare at her. I rolled my eyes.

"Glare all you want, but you know the two of you are being ridiculous," I snapped.

"She's in the wrong!" Angelina defended.

"You accused her totally out of the blue; has it occurred to you that maybe she really doesn't have your dress?" I suggested.

"This isn't out of the blue at all, she's been stealing my clothes for years! So when my brand new dress disappeared, where else was I supposed to assume it was?!" Angelina defended, letting out an aggravated huff. "No, I'm not putting up with it any longer."

I sighed. It was clear Alicia and I weren't getting anywhere with this topic anytime soon.

Soon enough, the twins joined us and we headed towards the seventh floor corridor Sam told us about.

"You know, I've never heard of this place we're meeting at," Fred said cautiously. "Are we sure Harry hasn't finally lost his marbles and is leading us all to a broom closet?"

"Is that really more likely than the idea that you haven't discovered every single inch of this castle?" I scoffed.

The twins glanced at each other, before simultaneously saying firmly "Yeah."

I was firmly confident in the fact that Harry hadn't lost his marbles until we arrived at the specified spot and found Sam standing in front of a blank stretch of wall, smiling at us expectantly.

"Merlin, it's worse than we thought," George muttered. "Harry's lost his bonkers and he's dragged Sam down with him."

Sam rolled his eyes, overhearing the last statement. He didn't say a word before turning on his heel and pacing back and forth in front of the wall, looking like he was concentrating very heavily. Nervously, I glanced back at George as I began to question my brother's sanity, when suddenly a space on the wall shimmered slightly and a door appeared.

Sam immediately turned back to us with a confident smile on his face. "See? Not crazy," he said breezily, and Fred shrugged as he pushed the door open.

"Debatable, your whole family is pretty fuckin' crazy," he said, ignoring my eye roll. George, Alicia, Angelina and I followed behind Fred to enter a spacious room lit with flickering torches. The walls were lined with wooden book cases, and instead of chairs there were silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments, including Sneakoscopes and Secrecy Sensors, and the ajar cupboard door showed that it was full of dummies with targets on their chests.

"I was definitely not expecting anything this good," George said, sounding as impressed as I felt. "Like, seriously. No offense, but my expectations were pretty damn low."

"Agreed," Angelina nodded.

I spotted Harry then, sitting with a small group of people. I shot him a wide grin when he glanced up at us.

"How did you find this place?" I asked, laughing slightly in disbelief. "God, it's _perfect!_ It's unbelievable… she'll never find us here…"

"It's called the Room of Requirement," he said as we reached his side. "You can demand anything of this place, and you get it. So, I tell the Room I need a place to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts, and…"

"…and it provides it," I finished in awe. "That's amazing."

"Hey… we once hid from Filch in here," Fred said slowly. "Remember, George? It was only a broom cupboard then, though."

"It pains me to think of the opportunities we've missed over the years, not knowing this place existed," George replied sadly.

It wasn't long before everyone else arrived, making similar noises of awe as we had done. Harry looked more and more nervous as the room filled, but made me proud with the obvious effort he put in to maintaining an air of confidence when he addressed us.

"Well, hello everyone. This is the place we've found to practice in, and… er… well, you've all very obviously found it to your liking. So, I was thinking that we should get started right off, and- er…" he broke off when Hermione's hand shot into the air. "…yes, Hermione?"

"I think we need a name," she said brightly, and I couldn't hide my smile at her enthusiasm. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the anti-Umbridge league?" Angelina asked hopefully, and the other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team all voiced their approval (except Katie, though she looked like maintaining her silence was a great effort).

"What about the Ministry of Magic are Morons group?" Fred suggested brightly, cheerfully ignoring the sharp frown Hermione sent his way in much the same manner he did when getting the exact same look from all our teachers.

"The Secret Defense Against the Dark Arts Group led by the Boy-Who-Lived?" Lee suggested, also ignoring the sharp frown Hermione sent his way.

"I was thinking more of a name that didn't immediately tell everyone what we're up to, so we can refer to it outside of meetings," she said, and Lee just shrugged.

"She should have specified that at the beginning, then," I heard him mutter to Katie, but nobody acknowledged him except Katie when she rolled her eyes.

"What about the Defense Association? We can make it the DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about," Cho suggested.

"Yeah, the DA is good, but let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army instead," Ginny piped up. "I mean, that's Fudge's worst fear, isn't it? Dumbledore forming an army?"

I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me, and there was a good deal of other excited responses to this. Dumbledore's Army was the one thing that would strike fear into Umbridge… it felt _perfect._

"Okay, all in favor of the DA?" Hermione asked bossily, kneeling up on her cushion and counting us as we raised our hands in a vote. "That's a majority- motion passed!"

Harrys smile was much more genuine now after the discussion, as he said "Alright, shall we get into some practice, then? I've been thinking that we should start with some more simplistic things, and then gradually work our way up to some more complex magic. So I thought we should begin with the Disarming Charm first, because I've found it useful in the past-"

"Oh, _please!_" Came an annoyed drawl from the front of the group. I didn't even need to look up to see who it was. "That's beginners magic- it's hardly going to be useful against You-Know-Who, is it?"

Harry's smile completely fell from his face. "I have used it against him. It saved my life last June."

The entire room was silent after his quiet admission. Zacharias Smith continued to stare up at him, opening and closing his mouth dumbly a few times.

"If you think it's too beneath you, feel free to leave," Harry said simply. When nobody moved, he continued. "Right, I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Katie popped to her feet and extended a hand to me, which I took and allowed her to pull me to my feet. "Get ready to get your ass kicked, Breezy," she challenged with an evil grin, which I gladly returned.

"Right," Harry called when we were all spread around the room. "On the count of three, practice with me. One, two… three!"

There were shouts of "Expelliarmus!" and I jumped gleefully when my spell hit home, knocking Katie's wand to the ground. I used the moment she took to retrieve it to observe the room.

Zacharias Smith was very obviously not the only one who thought that this was a bit of a simplistic spell, which was why I was so surprised with how down right terrible a lot of people were at casting it. A few wands flew into the air away from their owners, but the majority of spells actually missed completely. A few hit the book cases, causing the books to fly into the air. The majority of people weren't being disarmed properly, but rather wincing or jumping backwards as the feeble disarming spells bounced off of them. A glance at Harry's face told me that he, too, noticed the shoddy spell casting going on in the room.

I was broken out of my musing by Katie's spell hitting me, causing my wand to fly out of my hand and hit Lee in the face. I ignored his shouted swearing, my attention suddenly held elsewhere as I watched Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened up his mouth to cast the spell, his own wand would fly out of his hand, though his opponent was doing nothing but watching on in a mixture of amusement and confusion.

It only took me a few more seconds to find the answer to this mystery, and when I did a loud laugh escaped me. Fred and George were taking it in turns to point their wands at his back, sniggering.

"Oi, Smith! For such a simple spell, you seem to be having a fair bit of trouble!" Fred called, grinning when Zacharias flushed scarlet.

A stern, teacher-like stare from Harry (who was barely repressing his own amusement) stopped their fun.

"Sorry, Harry," George said, his grin betraying how meaningless his apology was. "Couldn't resist."

Katie and I continued practicing as Harry made his way through the group, occasionally stopping to give advice. He was pretty hesitant, but slowly gained confidence when he realized people were actually taking what he said into consideration. The general performance very slowly improved (well, generally. Neville was struggling, and at one point his spell missed his partner altogether and hit Alicia in the face. Dazed and confused, she was still pretty kind about the whole thing), until Harry called for us all to stop.

"Guys, that was really brilliant," he said enthusiastically. "I think this is a good place to leave it, so shall we meet same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" Dean called excitedly, and many people made noises of agreement.

"We'll stick with next week, and then we can come up with some additional meetings then," Harry replied sheepishly. "Come on, we'd better get going."

Slowly, people began to file out of the room. I made my way in the opposite direction, coming to a stop in front of Harry, Sam, Fred and George.

"You did fantastically, Harry!" I complimented, and he immediately grinned at me. "That was excellent, I could see how much everyone was enjoying themselves."

He thanked me, and I hoisted my bag up on my shoulder, about to leave, when Sam spoke up.

"Oi, I need some help with Transfiguration. Do you mind giving me a hand?" he asked, and I froze midstep.

"Oh- er, I'd love to Sammy, but I've got something to take care of. So, if you'll excuse me…" I said vaguely, hurrying out of the room before he could ask for any more information. I glanced back just before I turned to head down the corridor, to see the twins and my brother staring after me in confusion. I smiled back at them, before turning and heading to the library, to teach Draco Malfoy everything I'd just learnt.

* * *

><p>As almost everybody knows by this point, Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. So as December 25th drew closer, my mood brightened even more than usual. How could anybody not be happy at Christmas? The beautiful light fixtures were put up, humongous trees were decorated, mistletoe sprouted above every archway, and my personal favorite: the snow began to fall.<p>

So of course when I rolled over and caught sight of the white specks in the distance outside the window, I ignored my original plan of falling back asleep and instead jumped to my feet, suddenly feeling very awake. I changed into my warm clothes in record time before taking off towards the boy's dormitories, slamming the door open and diving onto George's bed. George groaned as Fred ignored me, Lee opening one eye lazily to assess the situation. The boys other roommates were mostly used to this sort of thing, so they ignored my presence.

Soon enough, I had managed to motivate them enough to pull themselves out of bed, and moments later found me rolling around in the fluffy white snow just outside the doors to the school.

"I LOVE THIS!" I cried, giggling, but abruptly cut off when I noticed the twins wincing as they sat down beside me. Lee was busy rolling up snowballs nearby and giggling to himself to notice.

"Hey, what's up with you two? Are you alright?" I asked, sitting back up to meet their gazes.

George winced again, but this time it was out of awkwardness. "Er- the Fever Fudge is the only Skiving Snackbox not ready for sale yet. We've been testing it on ourselves and there's some not so desirable side effects."

"Like what?! Are you alright?" I cried, but Fred waved my concern away.

"It causes these massive, pus filled boils to develop," he said. "We haven't worked out how to get rid of them yet."

My eyes ran down both their figures. "I don't see any-"

"Yeah, they aren't in a place we like to display to the general public," George said, and Fred nodded.

"The snow is pretty helpful," he added matter of factly, gesturing to his ass.

I didn't have time to reply before a snowball collided with the side of Fred's head, and Lee began giggling maniacally.

And so it began; our second annual snowball fight. It only took half an hour before we wore ourselves out, and I flopped down to the ground to make a snow angel as the boys began to amuse themselves with bewitching snowballs to zoom up and bang on the Gryffindor Tower windows.

Finally, someone lost their temper, and it took me only a second to realize it was Ron who had slammed a window open and stuck his head out.

"OI! I AM A PREFECT AND IF ONE MORE SNOWBALL HITS THIS WINDOW- _OUCH!"_

He slammed the window closed after him as the twins tried to hit him a second time, groaning at the missed chance. We spent the rest of the day rolling around in the snow, which I very much enjoyed at the time- but a few days later I would really, really regret.

"_Achoo!" _I sneezed for about the hundredth time, wincing.

"You don't sound too great," Alicia pointed out unnecessarily.

"Not true- she sounds absolutely adorable!" Katie cried, and I rolled my eyes. My Mom always said I had 'delicate' sneezes; high pitch and quiet, though they just felt painful when I was coming down with a cold as I very clearly was now.

"I think you're a bit of a hypochondriac," Victoria said from where she lounged back on her bed. I glanced down at myself, wrapped in both mine and Alicia's duvet's with a thick woolen jumper on and my big white beanie covering my ears and forehead, a pack of precautionary tissues resting beside me as I took a break from packing my bags for the holidays.

Sniffing, I lied easily "I don't know what you mean."

Victoria was about to reply when the door to our room slammed open.

"BELL!"

Katie looked up just in time for her eyes to widen and let out a scream before Angelina jumped on top of her, straddling her body so Katie couldn't move.

"What the hell are you- _have you finally fucking lost your mind_?!" Katie screamed, as I jumped to my feet in alarm.

"First you took my dress- and _denied it!"_ she yelled, pushing Katie back down when she startled struggling underneath her. "BUT NOW YOU'VE TAKEN MY HAT TOO! WHEN WILL IT END, BELL?! WHEN WILL IT END?!"

"I HAVEN'T GOT YOUR DAMN HAT!" Katie yelled, bucking her hips up to try and dislodge Angelina, but Angie held tight.

"We are not moving until you admit you have my clothes and you tell me where they are!" she threatened. "I will sit here all damn night! YOU KNOW I HAVE A WILL OF STEEL! I HAVE FIVE OLDER BROTHERS!"

Katie chose that moment to buck her hips again, successfully sending Angelina sprawling off of her and onto the ground.

"Oh my God, stop it!" Alicia yelled as Angelina sprung back to her feet.

"No, keep going!" Victoria cheered, looking endlessly amused. Angelina ducked down suddenly, grabbing Katie's backpack and ripping open the zipper and beginning to rifle through it, throwing the contents to the ground as she went reached them. Katie let out an infuriated cry, running at Angelina, who ducked around her.

"What, is it in here? Do you have the stolen goods on you?!"

"YOU'RE FUCKING INSANE!" Katie screamed, crying out when Angelina threw the empty bag at her and hit her in the face, almost tripping over Felix in his bed as she went.

Felix let out a loud, annoyed meow, and I immediately went to his side, hoisting him into my arms. He let out a more distressed sounding meow, and a second later Alicia clapped her hands over her mouth after gasping.

We all followed her gaze down to my cat's bed, only to see bright aqua fabric.

"My_ dress!_" Angelina gasped, dropping down to her knees and pulling out not only her dress, but her hat, my old beanie, Katie's Gryffindor scarf, and several other articles of clothing I'd never seen before.

For a moment, we were all silent. And then, Katie broke it.

"THAT FUCKING CAT!" Katie yelled, and I dropped Felix as she jumped at us.

"RUN, FELIX!" I screamed, and he was smart enough to scurry out the open door (the little thief).

We all fell into silence then, until Katie cleared her throat. "Well, looks like you owe me a pretty big apology, Angelina," she said expectantly, and Angelina flushed.

"Well, I mean-" she began, before steeling herself. "Sure, you didn't do it this time, but that doesn't cover for the fact that you've always stolen my stuff before now!"

Katie's jaw dropped. "How dare you! I deserve an apology!"

"I feel like I deserve an apology too for having to listen to you two fight it out over the past two weeks," Alicia piped up.

"I'm not apologizing to anyone! This is so typical of you, you're so-"

Angelina cut off abruptly, and all our eyes drifted to the source of the new noise in the room. Victoria was laid back on her bed, clapping her hands as she laughed so hard she looked like she was about to cry.

"What the hell is so funny?" Angelina demanded, and Victoria barely managed to get out her words around her continued laughter.

"You two! You two are hilarious! You're been fighting like mad for two weeks because of a _cat!_" she giggled gleefully. "That's so embarrassing!"

Abruptly, both Katie and Angelina straightened up, their faces falling blank. Slowly, Alicia and I joined in with Victoria, giggling at the total absurdity of the situation.

Angelina's hands flew up to cover her face. Then, she wailed out loudly, "I'm sorry, Katie!"

Katie looked really startled by Angelina's abrupt apology. "Oh- Angie- no, I'm sorry!" she cried.

"No, you have nothing to be sorry for," Angelina interrupted. "It was all my fault, I shouldn't have jumped down your throat-"

"No, you were right to, I do steal your stuff all the time-"

"But not this time, it wasn't fair of me-"

"Yeah but, if this whole thing hadn't have happened, chances are I probably would have stolen the dress anyway-"

Simultaneously, they laughed before throwing their arms around each other in a hug.

"I only steal your stuff because I love your fashion sense so much," Katie said, and Angelina shook her head.

"No, it's okay, friend's share things! I'm sorry for being such a bitch!" Angelina replied.

"I'm sorry for deserving it," Katie said, and they fell silent. Suddenly, they both pulled back from the hug and turned to me.

"Your cat is so not off the damn hook, by the way!" Katie cried, her voice suddenly very harsh again. Surprised by the sudden turn of attention, I fell back onto my bed with another sneeze.

Poor Felix better watch his back. Hell hath no fury like these two idiots scorned.

* * *

><p>Things sailed on smoothly once Katie and Angelina were back to BFF status, until only a day was left to go until the Christmas holidays. That night found us in our fifth DA meeting, which has become a highlight in all our schedules. Harry made sure to focus on spells that the majority of people very obviously struggled with, and hadn't introduced anything new to us yet. It was obvious that everyone was slowly but steadily improving not just on particular spells, but in their general spell casting, which was why these meetings had been such a success.<p>

This evening, the Room of Requirement had decorated itself to match the rest of the school, with beautiful wreaths, mistletoe, and a brightly lit tree in the corner of the room. We were having more of a revision lesson since it was the last one before Christmas, and we were free to work on whatever we'd covered so far that we weren't so confident with. I'd just hit Katie with a spectacularly aimed stunning spell, and decided to take a glance around to see how everyone else was doing. Immediately, I spotted Sam sitting at one of the tables along the walls, his head resting on his hand as he stared at one corner of the room, looking kind of dazed. I ducked behind Lavender as she was hit with an Impediment Jinx before jumping behind the table, settling myself beside my brother.

He didn't acknowledge my presence apart from letting out a long sigh. "Isn't she beautiful?" he asked, his voice sounding vacant and dreamy. I grinned- romantic Sam hadn't made an appearance in quite a while- but my grin turned to a frown of surprise when my eyes hit someone unexpected.

"What, Hermione?" I asked, and he vehemently shook his head.

"Ew, Bree, no! Behind Hermione!"

Hermione moved slightly in her argument with Ron, and I saw a blonde girl standing a few paces behind her, a wide happy grin on her face. She looked vaguely familiar, but not enough so for me to really know who she was.

"She's very pretty, Sam," I commented "Who is she?"

He sighed again, in what I now realized was a love struck sort of way. "Hannah Abbott," he replied, smiling just at the sound of her name. "She's in Hufflepuff in my grade and she's, like, the prettiest girl I've ever seen."

"Then why isn't she your girlfriend?" I prompted, and he sighed.

"I mean, we're friends, but I don't know if she sees me as more than that. Half the time I don't know if she realizes I'm flirting with her or if she just thinks I'm being friendly."

"You'll be miserable if you think like that; you need to do something to show her how you feel. If you never show her how you feel, she might never know you feel that way," I advised, and at that second a flash of ginger hair popped up to my left, making me jump.

"Bree, that is the most wonderful piece of advice I've ever heard from you. Don't you think so, Georgie?" Fred asked enthusiastically, glancing over mine and my brother's heads to look at George where he now sat beside Sam. "_If you never show her how you feel, she might never know you feel that way_, and that's just stupid! Imagine being that bloody thick! Ha!"

George narrowed his eyes at his brother. "Yeah, but you have to be careful, _Sam. _What if you do show her how you feel and it totally ruins your friendship with her? What if she doesn't feel the same way and you're just left feeling like an absolute idiot, _and_ you lose her for good? Isn't keeping your friendship intact more important?'

"But _Sam,_" Fred rebutted more forcefully, interrupting Sam as he opened his mouth to reply. "What if she_ does_ feel the same way? Shouldn't you do something so you know for sure? Isn't a little risk worth it in the end?"

George opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment Sam shot to his feet, surprising the twins enough for them to jump back in surprise, almost like they'd forgotten we were here at all.

"You're right, Fred!" Sam cried enthusiastically. "I have to know how she feels! And no matter what happens, it's gotta be worth it in the end, right?"

"Hmmmm, ya hear that George? I'm right!" Fred said, just as Sam turned to look back at us.

"How do I make my move?" he asked, seeming not to have heard Fred's last statement. "What do I do? Come on guys, keep the advice coming. Help me blow her away."

That was when Lee popped up beside Fred, a wide grin on his face, making the rest of us jump again.

"Now this is more my area of expertise," Lee began, before I held my hand up and interrupted him.

"Where the fuck do you people keep popping up from? Are you all just eavesdropping and waiting for the chance to best make a dramatic entrance?!"

Lee totally ignored me.

"Thing is, Sammy, girls love a bit of spontaneity. So I'm thinking, in this time of festivities, use your surroundings to your advantage! Catch her under a sprig of mistletoe, grab her, and then_ boom_! Wow her with your fantastic kissing skills!" Lee grinned, ignoring my laughter over how cheesy the whole thing was. "It's basically foolproof."

"Unless she doesn't like you," George muttered, and this time both Fred and Lee's heads snapped to stare at him.

"_Especially_ if she doesn't like you," Lee said. "Even the smallest of attraction can be magnified by a hugely romantic gesture. Angelina quoted me saying that in her book, so it's sound science. She gave that line to a love guru."

He paused, as though waiting for us all to express how impressed we were.

"I'm basically a love guru!" he burst out, but Fred just shook his head and continued on as though Lee hadn't spoken.

"And besides, if you don't make your move, she might start dating someone else soon," he said as though it were obvious. "Some blonde douchebag, probably. And do you want that?!"

"You guys are geniuses!" Sam cried admiringly, and once again the boys looked like they'd forgotten he was even there. Without waiting for a further word he stood and hurried over to Hannah, easily slipping into conversation with her and shooting us a wink when her back was turned to him.

I turned to face the boys fully now. "So which one of you has a crush on someone?" I asked, and their eyes all shot to me in slight panic.

"George," Fred said, just as George said "Fred" simultaneously.

I laughed slightly, and was about to reply when a shadow fell over us. We all looked up to see Harry standing in front of the table, his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised.

"Have you lot mastered the Impediment Jinx, then?"

"Sorry, Professor," we chanted, hopping to our feet and returning to our spots on the floor, Harry shaking his head in amusement as he watched us.

Not long after this point, Harry called us all to a stop.

"You're all getting really good!" he said, beaming around at us all. "When we get back from the holidays, I want to start learning some new spells- who knows? Maybe someday I'll teach you all how to cast a Patronus charm."

I let out an excited noise at that, and I wasn't the only one. I'd always secretly wanted to be able to cast a Patronus charm; they looked so beautiful when performed properly.

We filtered out of the room slowly after that, only in pairs of twos or threes so we didn't attract too much attention at two dozen people suddenly appearing on the seventh floor. Sam filtered past me with Lavender, shooting me a thumbs up before he ushered her out the door. I turned to say goodbye to Harry only to see he and Cho shooting each other furtive glances, and left them with a grin.

The twins disappeared from my side soon after we left the Room of Requirement, muttering something about the kitchens, but I wasn't alone for long. I was about halfway to the common room when someone called my name, and I turned to see Jason coming towards me.

"Hey!" I greeted, trying not to sound too enthusiastic. "I haven't seen you in a few days. How are you?"

"I'm good! Yeah, I just saw your brother and he pointed me in your direction; I thought I should catch you in case I didn't see you before the Christmas holidays. Here, I'll walk you to your common room," he said, gesturing for me to walk beside him.

"Thanks, Jason," I said, turning to walk towards the seventh floor corridor.

"Have you got any big plans for Christmas?" he inquired, and I shrugged. Truthfully, I'd be spending it in Grimmauld Place with a convicted criminal and other members of a secret defense society, but I tried to stick as close to the truth as possible when I answered.

"Well, my extended family are all back in America, so celebrations with them aren't possible. Mom's like, best friends with Mrs Weasley these days, so I have a feeling the Weasley's and the Potter's and the Granger's will all make an appearance."

Jason nodded. "Ah, well, that's cool. Christmas is about spending time with the people you consider your family, not just those you're related to by blood, and it's obvious you love all those people. I don't have much of an extended family, but I've lived next door to Dan for as long as I can remember, so our families spend a lot of the holidays together. It's something I've always looked forward to."

"That sounds lovely," I commented sincerely, and he winced slightly.

"Well, it would be better if we didn't have a mountain of homework due first week back," he said. "A very thoughtful Christmas gift from the teachers of Hogwarts, but I'd rather return it for store credit."

I laughed, nodding my head in agreement. "Well, here we are," I said, gesturing to the portrait of the Fat Lady. "You better hurry. It's only a few minutes until curfew."

Jason didn't seem to hear me at all. Now that I looked at him, I saw he wore a sly sort of smile as he stared at something above me. Following his gaze, I froze when I saw a tuft of mistletoe hanging above us.

I nearly scoffed out loud. This couldn't be real; not even half an hour after laughing at Lee's lame Christmas pickup trick of using mistletoe, and here I was.

Well, I would have scoffed if I'd been thinking at all at that point. When I saw the plant, my mind went pretty much blank, my eyes shooting back down to see Jason stepping closer towards me.

"Mistletoe," he commented quietly. "I don't want to risk Santa's wrath by ignoring it. Do you?"

He didn't wait for me to reply before I felt his lips crash down on mine.

* * *

><p>Nothing in this world could possibly bring down my mood. This year's Christmas would never be beaten, and that is just a fact.<p>

Jason Dawes was a glorious kisser. He was basically just glorious full stop. When he'd eventually pulled away from me, he'd stayed close, a small smile on his face. "Merry Christmas, Bree," he said, and then I'd stared at the place he disappeared down the corridor until some third year came bounding up it towards me and I'd been startled out of my day dream. I basically floated through the common room to my dormitory. I doubted anything would be able to dampen my mood.

Until the next morning when I realized all the Weasley's had gone missing overnight.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, lovely readers! This chapter was a real killer for me; I can't even tell you the writers block I hit. I know exactly where I'm going over the next few chapters, but this one just didn't want to be written. Sorry if it's absolutely terrible, but I'm so excited about some things coming up soon! As always, thanks for sticking with me through my long gaps between updating, you're all so wonderful! <strong>


	24. God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs

"What's got you in such a super good mood?" Katie queried the next morning when I joined them at breakfast.

"Yeah, you practically floated out of bed this morning and I half expected you to burst into song like a Disney princess," Angelina added.

I shrugged noncommittally but couldn't wipe the wide grin off my face. "Oh, no reason in particular," I sang, and Alicia raised her eyebrows.

Katie dropped her fork onto her plate before leaning towards me across the table. "Spill it, bitch!"

"I'm just really happy that it's Christmas," I taunted. Of course, I told Katie, Alicia and Angelina everything, but I kinda wanted to tease them a little first.

"Oh, really?" Angelina asked skeptically. "Does your joy also have something to do with the fact that Jason Dawes has been staring at you ever since you sat down?"

Immediately, my head shot up and my eyes easily found his. He raised his hand in a wave before looking back to his friends with a grin.

"SPILL IT, BITCH!" Katie cried, this time much louder and much more excitedly.

I pursed my lips to hide the grin that had been on my face all morning, and probably all night in my sleep. I leaned in closer towards them before whispering, "He kissed me."

Immediately, Angelina's jaw dropped, Alicia gasped, and Katie let out a squeal. "No way! _No way!"_

I knew she wasn't questioning the truth of my statement, but I nodded anyway. "Yes way!"

"Bree, that's wonderful!" Angelina cried, but before she could say anymore Lee flopped down next to us.

"Hey, have Fred and George already eaten? They were already gone when I woke up this morning," he asked, sounding uncharacteristically concerned.

Angelina waved his concern away. "No, but I'm sure they're doing something somewhere that's against school rules. Tell us more about Jason, Bree! How was the kiss?"

Lee choked on his pumpkin juice, before forgetting about his breakfast altogether as he leant over the table so far his tie fell into a tub of porridge. "He kissed you?!" he cried, his concern for the twins disappearing in a second. "Oh my God, it must have been good! Look at you, you're fucking glowing!"

Embarrassedly, I covered my face with my hands, but couldn't stop another happy giggle from escaping.

Twenty minutes later, I entered the dungeons to find the table Fred and George usually occupied to be empty. The bell rang a moment later, and I looked up in anticipation of seeing them waltzing through the door as late as ever, but they were nowhere to be found.

After Snape assigned our potion (something ridiculously complex and boring considering it's the last damn day of term), I leant over to tap Victoria on the shoulder.

"Hey, Tori, have you seen the twins?" I whispered, and she shook her head.

"Sorry honey, but they're probably just skipping class," she shrugged, before turning back to her work. I slid back into my seat and nodded my head; she was probably right, after all.

Two hours of potions later found me at the Gryffindor table again for lunch, and then in the Charms classroom for two hours. The twins didn't appear all day. By the time my last class of the day rolled around, Transfiguration, my good mood from that morning had completely disappeared, leaving me pretty much unable to concentrate on anything but tapping my quill on the table nervously. When the last bell of the day rang, I sprung to my feet immediately, pushing to the front of the room while my peers all hurried for the door.

"Professor McGonagall," I called anxiously, and she looked up from the paperwork on her desk. She didn't look at all surprised to see me.

"Good afternoon, Miss Montero," she greeted. "I'm going to assume you're here to ask me about the Weasley family's sudden absence."

Ya know, that's something I really admired in McGonagall. Her total no-nonsense, straight to the point attitude.

Since she was the one to raise the topic, I didn't hesitate to ask. Before I knew it, I was rambling. "Where are they? Did something- did something happen? Did one of them get hurt? I just- I've been trying to reason why they wouldn't be here but I just can't think of anything that would have-"

Her usual stern exterior seemed to falter slightly when she heard the desperate hue in my voice. "Arthur Weasley was attacked last night in the course of his work for the Order. He was very gravely injured, but he is now on his way to recovery at St Mungoes. I believe your brother is assisting in his care."

For a moment, I was completely shocked silent. "Hurt?" I eventually managed in a hoarse voice. "How hurt?! Oh, God, they would have been so frightened… I- I should…"

_I should have been there_._ I should have been with them._

McGonagall seemed to understand. "The Weasley's were sent to headquarters during the night to wait for news of their Father's condition. As I understand, it was touch and go for a while, but I've been assured he will recover fully. I take it you know you'll be spending the holidays at Grimmauld Place?"

I nodded. "I assumed," I managed to say, still sort of shocked over what I'd just been told.

"I advise you to pretend to know nothing about their whereabouts when you speak to your friends at dinner," she said gently, and again, I nodded.

"Of course," I said distractedly, before turning to leave. I was halfway out the door before I remembered myself, spinning back around to call, "Merry Christmas, Professor!"

Despite the seriousness of our talk, she cracked a smile before returning my well wishes.

I knew the feast in the Great Hall would be amazing considering it was the last one before the Christmas break, but I doubted I'd be able to eat anything. All I could think about was Mr Weasley and his family; what had happened to him? She said it was touch and go, so much so that they'd pulled his children out of school in the middle of the night to see him, perhaps thinking it would be the last time they got to see their Father. They would have been so terrified…

Suddenly not craving the hustle and bustle of the Great Hall, I turned to head up to the common room instead. I was surprised when I entered to see Sam sitting on the couch in front of the fire in the otherwise empty room. When he saw me, he jumped to his feet.

"There you are! I've been looking for you all day! Were you hiding from me or something?!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I thought that was the aim of hide-n-seek," I replied sarcastically, and he shook his head in annoyance.

"It's about the Weasley's- about why they're not here today-"

"I just talked to McGonagall," I interrupted, "she said Arthur had been attacked-"

"Harry saw it!"

Immediately, I fell silent. His words shocked me enough to stay quiet long enough for him to elaborate.

"He- he _saw_ it, Bree! He woke up screaming in the middle of the night and started yelling that Mr Weasley had been attacked by a giant snake and then suddenly McGonagall was there and then they were gone-"

"Oh my _God_!" I cried, trying to absorb the new information. "How- how could he have _seen_ the attack? How could that have happened?"

Sam was nearly hysterical. "I don't know- he was shaking and sweating and he was deathly pale, and I stayed awake all night but none of them ever came back and then McGonagall told me this morning that they were all gone…"

I let out a shaky breath before wrapping my arms around his shoulders and pulling him towards me. Immediately, he returned the hug, and I realized that his whole form was shaking. "He's alright- McGonagall said that it was touch and go for a while, but now they've stabilized Mr Weasley and he's going to be alright." I wondered to myself why McGonagall hadn't mentioned anything about Harry, but then I remembered that she'd never answered to me before, and she wasn't about to start. The whole thing was worrying- how could he possibly have seen the attack? What did it all mean? But then again, that's probably something the Order want to keep as quiet as possible.

I couldn't think about this anymore- it was giving me a headache. But Sam was still panicking, so I took a deep breath and tried to sound calmer than I felt.

"It's all okay, Sam. The only thing we can really do now is try and get some sleep, we'll see everyone at Grimmauld Place tomorrow. Alright?"

Slowly, he nodded, before pulling away from me with a sniff. "I uh… I should go pack. I haven't done that yet," he said quietly, before turning away from me. I tried to smile reassuringly at him, but wasn't sure how convincing I was.

God, what the hell is going on with Harry Potter?

* * *

><p>The train ride home the next day was pretty tense due to the fact that nobody but Sam and I knew the reason behind the Weasley's disappearance. Well, Lee brushed the whole thing off with the reasoning that "we'd know if something had happened" (how wrong you are, Lee), but he did acknowledge the rest of us sitting in the compartment were worried and took it upon himself to cheer us up.<p>

And the best way he could imagine doing this was by playing pictionary.

"It's a… fish? With very large fins? Or gills?" Katie tried, and Lee slammed the pad of paper down.

"It's a fucking _turtle!_" he snapped loudly. "How the absolute shit did it take you thirteen tries and you're still nowhere near accurate?!"

"Lee, that is definitely not a turtle," Angelina scoffed, and Lee shot her a glare, lifting the pad of paper again and pointing at his drawing.

"Look!_ There's_ the shell, and_ there's_ its tail, and _there's_ its eyes!"

"Oh!" Katie sounded out. "See, I thought those were the gills."

"This game would be more fun if any of us could draw," Alicia pointed out, and Lee huffed, throwing the pad of paper back down on the ground, muttering something that sounded like "well, fuck you all."

I only barely stifled a laugh. "So, any special plans for Christmas?"

"Spending it at the Jordan's," Katie said, pointing lazily at Lee. "Mum's jetting off to Bora Bora with her new boyfriend."

"Oh, since when?" Alicia asked, surprised.

"Since she met him, like, two weeks ago."

Alicia winced. "Ah."

"Oh, but we are gonna have so much fun!" Lee announced cheerily, practically hopping up and down in his excitement. "We can go skiing, and we can go snowboarding, and we can-"

"-stay in bed until midday every day, overuse the heater, overdose on eggnog and watch old Christmas movies," Katie interrupted, and Lee nodded.

"Yep, that's good too," he said.

Angelina spoke up next, sounding hugely disappointed. "No island getaways for me these holidays," she glanced wistfully out the window. "I wonder how my lover from Barbados is doing…"

"Probably weeping hourly over your absence and reminiscing about your time together," Lee said, and Angelina nodded.

"Yeah, probably… well, I'll probably be doing much the same thing these holidays," she said. "Alicia, what's your plan?"

Grinning brightly, Alicia replied "my family are all coming to my house for Christmas, so I'll spend the holiday drinking eggnog and taking care of all my little cousins."

"You know, I think you're the only person I've ever met who seems to genuinely enjoy spending time with their family," Katie observed, and Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Like it's a bad thing my family is functional," she scoffed, and Lee pretended to shudder.

"I'm close to tears at the very thought of it," he said, and she kicked his leg.

Not long after that we reached Kings Cross Station. I picked up Felix's cage and pretended not to see the sharp glare Angelina threw my cat as I left the compartment, dragging my trunk behind me and waving goodbye to my friends once we reached the platform. It took longer than I thought it would to find my family- usually Toby was easy to spot towering over the majority of people around him, and Sam's bright blonde hair made him like a friggen lighthouse. Today though, I didn't spot either of them as I made my way through the huge crowd of people on the platform.

"Who we lookin' for?"

I jumped at the voice right by my ear with a yell, spinning to see both Sam and Toby standing beside me with identical grins on their faces.

"How long have you two been bloody following me around?!" I demanded, not waiting for their answer before I smacked them both on the arm. Toby's hand shot up to cradle where his arm took my blow, his grin not dampening at all as he leant down to kiss the top of my head.

"Good to see you too, baby sister," he said sarcastically, and I rolled my eyes. "C'mon, let's get out of here. Far too crowded for my taste."

"Wait, where's Mom and Dad?" I asked, looking around and not spotting either of them.

"Scotland," Toby answered cheerily. "Dad got called out there for work and Mom decided to go with him. They'll be back in a week or so. Come on, I want to go!"

Nodding, Sam and I followed him to the back of the platform where it was less crowded. I knew instinctively not to say anything about the Weasley family in such a public space, so tried to content myself with waiting another few minutes.

"Bree, you Apparate with the bags and I'll take Sam," Toby said, and I reached over to take Sam's trunk just as he and Toby disappeared. I looked up momentarily and spotted familiar bright blonde hair. Draco stood not too far away from me with a man with long hair the same shade as his, a pointed, angular face and what looked like a permanent frown on his face. It had to be his Father; the similarities were too striking.

Draco and his Father were greeting each other, but not in the way I usually greeted my family. Their words were short and they didn't reach out to hug each other before his Father seemed to lose interest in him, taking the time to scan the platform instead. Draco watched his father, a sad look crossing his features, before he averted his eyes and caught sight of me watching them. Immediately, I smiled in a friendly fashion at him, and he very hesitantly returned it after a second. Internally, I was dancing in victory- Draco and I had truly come a long way since I'd started tutoring him.

He glanced away from me a second later, and I took the time to tighten my grip on both mine and Sam's bags. That was when Draco's father's eyes slid over to me, and I almost did a double take at the cold stare now levelled at me. Politely, I smiled at him, but he didn't return it before I Apparated. Only when I was safely away from the train station, standing on the doorstep of Grimmauld Place, did I let myself shudder at the lingering feel of his cool gaze.

The door opened, and Toby poked his head out. "The hell took you so long, did you stop for ice cream on the way?"

Rolling my eyes, I shook myself and tried to focus on the present. I did so by thrusting Sam's trunk at Toby and feeling very satisfied by the grunt he made as it hit him.

"Sorry," I called breezily as I pushed past him into the house.

Fact: it was just as dark and creepy as it was the last time I was here.

Fact: someone really needs to redecorate this place.

Fact: no way in damn hell Sirius Black was gonna do it.

I waved my wand at my bags once I reached the landing, sending them to my room upstairs, before Toby appeared by my side. Sam's bags were missing now too, so I assumed he'd done the same thing. With a nervous glance at the covered painting of Mrs Black, he nodded towards the stairwell leading to the kitchen, and I hurried down it.

I was disappointed when I entered the kitchen to find no bright red hair, but my disappointment didn't last for long.

"Sirius!" I cried, throwing myself at the dark haired man, who was now grinning as he reached down to embrace me. "Oh, I've missed you!"

He laughed heartily as he pulled back to look down at me. "It's been very quiet around here without you, that's for sure. Here, I'll grab some Butterbeer, everyone sit down."

Sam, Toby and I settled ourselves at the table as Sirius summoned four bottles.

"Where are the Weasley's?" I burst out as soon as he was seated. "Are they alright?"

"They're all fine, they're at St Mungoes right now. Arthur's been moved to a permanent room, he'll be in there for a few more weeks," Sirius replied, and I nodded slowly, addressing my next few words to Toby.

"McGonagall said that you were looking after him- what happened?"

"He was attacked by a giant snake- one we believe to belong to You-Know-Who," he said hesitantly, and I very barely stopped myself from gasping. "It was very serious- he lost a significant amount of blood, and for a while we weren't sure he was going to make it. But he's fine now, he's awake and… well, surprisingly calm about the whole thing."

"Arthur always knew being in the Order meant he was in danger," Sirius said quietly.

There was a moment of silence before Sam spoke up. "Harry woke up and said he saw Arthur's attack-"

Sirius nodded before sharing a glance with Toby. "That is very concerning. We haven't yet worked out what happened there. He's not being controlled by Voldemort; that we know for certain. But apart from possession, there aren't that many explanations about what could have happened."

If You-Know-Who were possessing Harry, it made sense that Harry would see things that the man himself was doing, but why You-Know-Who's pet snake? Instinctively, I knew I wouldn't be getting answers here. The Order members were experts at avoiding giving direct answers to our questions, but more so I sensed no lie in Sirius's tone: they really didn't know what was happening to Harry.

If anything, that worried me even more.

"How is he?" Sam asked, and Toby sighed.

"Avoiding everyone, mostly."

"He's scared," I said quietly, and my brother nodded slowly.

At that moment, the front door opened, and the sound of several footsteps came down the hallway, trying to make as little noise as possible, always mindful not to wake up Mrs Black. The door to the kitchen had barely opened before I was on my feet, throwing myself at the first person through it, tumbling to the ground with them when they lost their footing under our combined weight.

"oof!"

"GEORGIE!"

Fred's feet came to a stop beside where we lay, and I looked up to grin at his raised eyebrows.

"Is it an impossibility for you to remain on two feet?" he asked, and I rolled my eyes before grabbing his shirt and pulling him down next to his brother and throwing my arms around the both of them, where even though they protested, neither hesitated to return my embrace.

"Tonks, the dear, was kind enough to run to the shops and grabbed us some groceries while we visited Arthur- oh, what are you all doing on the floor? Are you alright?"

I looked up and smiled at Molly, hopping to my feet and wrapping my arms around her in a hug before taking the bags of groceries from her.

"Hi, Molly! It's so lovely to see you!" I chirped as I began to unpack the bags at the kitchen counter, as she stepped forwards to hug Sam.

"It's always lovely to see the two of you. How are you both?"

"Great," Sam chirped as George joined me at the counter, helping me unload the bags. "Yeah, everything's fine. How's… how's Arthur?"

Molly waved off his hesitant tone. "Arthur is on his way back to full health, thanks in part to Toby's work at St Mungoes. You'll both be able to visit him in a few days. Oh, Sirius, I was talking to Mad-Eye before and he said…"

I tuned Mrs Weasley out then, turning to George. I reached down and laid my hand on his where he had just reached down to pick up a milk carton, stopping his movements. His gaze slid up to mine curiously.

"Are you alright?" I asked quietly so none of the others would overhear us. "When I woke up and realized you weren't there… I was worried about you…"

He gave me a reassuring smile and turned his hand over to grip onto mine gently. "You don't need to worry, I'm fine. We're all fine. It was… hard, to say the least, to sit and wait for news, but I… yeah, it's fine. Dad's alive, and that's what matters."

Slowly, I nodded, tightening my grip on his hand. "I wish I could've been here with you all."

Hesitantly, he turned his hand and gripped mine tightly. "Yeah. I wish you were, too."

I held his gaze a moment longer, until Sam popped up at my side, not noticing our joined hands as he reached over and took a bag of chips from in front of me. I took my hand back from George's, clearing my throat as I snatched the bag back.

"I'll make you a sandwich; I'm sure you snacked enough on the train," I said, and he just rolled his eyes, snatching the bag of chips back.

"Thanks, Mom," he called sarcastically, completely ignoring my offer and flopping back down at the table next to Sirius, who was now staring around the room with a look of disappointment. Upon closer inspection, I realized why; Harry had apparently made the choice not to join us.

Over the next few days, I got back into the swing of things at Grimmauld Place. Tonks, Remus, Mad-Eye, Kingsley and Mundungus all made appearances fairly regularly, so there was always someone to chat to. Hermione surprised us all by appearing on our doorstep the second day into the holidays, having decided to spend the holidays with us rather than her parents. "The more the merrier!" Sam had sung jovially, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and leading her further into the house.

Harry, however, continued avoiding us. I tried to understand what he was feeling, but couldn't. How could I possibly understand how he felt? I had never faced Death Eaters, had never been afraid that You-Know-Who was making himself at home in my own mind, had never seen someone attacked in my head only to discover it had really happened thousands of miles away. So instead of understanding, I tried to sympathize. I just wanted to talk to him, make sure he was okay, but he sure made that a difficult task. Occasionally, Hermione and I would venture up to the room the boys shared, but he always feigned sleep until we left him be- if he was in his room at all. Ron informed us that Harry mostly hung out in the upper portion of the house, around the attic, so one day when I ventured up to the boys room and found he wasn't there, I decided that I would try the attic.

Determined to finally force Harry to face me and feeling very confident that I was up to the job, I reached the top floor humming cheerily to myself.

"Harry," I called, opening the attic door and striding inside. "It's time you-"

A pair of eyes stared back at me, but they definitely weren't Harry's. Standing in front of me was what I'm pretty sure was a hippogriff. The animal glared at me, flapping its wings and making a small noise of annoyance and slight surprise at my sudden appearance.

And that's when I started screaming. Stumbling my way out of the room, I tripped over my own feet in my haste and hit the ground, kicking the door shut as I scrambled on my hands and knees as far away from the door as possible. Somewhere down below I hears Mrs Black's shrieks join my own.

I looked up just in time to see George sprint around the corner, a look of sheer panic on his face. Sirius, Fred and Toby appeared slightly behind him.

"What?! What is it?! What happened?!" George cried, dropping to his knees to assess any damage. Toby was by his side in a second.

"Bree! Oh my God, are you hurt?!"

"ANIMAL! ATTIC! REALLY BIG! REALLY BIG WITH FEATHERS! WHY IS THERE A REALLY BIG ANIMAL WITH FEATHERS IN THE ATTIC?!"

Simultaneously, they all let out breaths of relief.

"Oh, Bree, that's Buckbeak," Sirius said, barely hiding his amusement. "He's the Hippogriff I escaped from captivity on. He's been up here for months."

"Wh-what?" I cried. "There's been a hippogriff living in this house for months and nobody told me?"

Fred sniggered as George pulled me to my feet.

"I mean, I suppose we all just assumed someone else had told you he was here," Toby said uncomfortably, and I bit my lip as something occurred to me.

"So, uh… this is where you disappear to sometimes with a bag of rats?" I asked nervously, and Sirius nodded. "Oh! Okay, phew. I gotta say, I'm a little relieved."

Sirius looked confused. "What the hell did you think I was doing?"

I coughed uncomfortably, before turning and heading towards the stairs, muttering something about making myself some tea for my frazzled nerves. I could feel their confused gazes following me down the stairs.

And so, Harry managed to escape confrontation for one more day.

The next day Hermione took on the responsibility of hunting down the elusive Potter boy, whilst Sam, Ginny, Ron and I waited in the boy's bedroom. After the hippogriff discovery I decided my days of exploring Grimmauld Place were finished once and for all. When Hermione came back with Harry, the first thing I noticed was the dark bags under his eyes, like he hadn't been sleeping properly. He looked exhausted and pale and messy.

"How're you feeling?" I asked, even though I knew it was a stupid question. His appearance screamed how he was feeling.

"Fine," he said stiffly, not looking at me.

"Oh, don't lie, Harry," Hermione said impatiently. "Ron and Ginny said you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from St Mungoes."

"They do, do they?" he asked, finally looking up to glare at the redheads. Ron looked down at his feet but Ginny seemed unabashed.

"Well, you have been!" she said. "And you won't look at any of us."

"It's you lot who won't look at me!" Harry insisted.

"Maybe you're taking it in turns to look and keep missing each other," Hermione suggested, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Very funny," Harry snapped.

"Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood," Hermione said sharply.

Sensing impatience may not be the best emotion to go with, I cleared my throat and spoke up. "We've just wanted to talk to you, Harry."

"I didn't want anyone to talk to me," Harry said, turning back to face the wall and crossing his arms. So much angst.

"Well, that was a bit stupid of you," Ginny said sharply, "seeing as you don't know anyone but me whose been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels."

He remained completely still for a moment, before spinning around, a surprised look adorning his face. "I forgot," he said. So did I, truthfully.

"Lucky you," she said coolly.

"I'm so sorry," he said sincerely, before clearing his throat and stepping closer. "So, uh, do you think I'm being possessed, then?"

"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing? Are there big blank periods where you don't know what you've been up to?" she asked, and Harry shook his head. "Then You-Know-Who hasn't ever possessed you. When he did it to me, I couldn't remember what I'd been doing for hours at a time. I'd find myself somewhere and not know how I got there."

Harry looked like he hardly dared to believe it. "That- that dream I had about your Dad and the snake, though-"

"Harry, you've had these sort of dreams before, though," Hermione reminded him, and he shook his head.

"This was different. I was inside the snake. It was like I was the snake… what if Voldemort somehow transported me to London-?"

"One day, you'll read Hogwarts: A History," Hermione said exasperatedly. "and perhaps it will remind you that you can't Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Even Voldemort can't make that happen."

"You didn't leave your bed, mate," Ron said, and Sam nodded.

"You were thrashing about in your sleep for at least a minute before we could wake you up," he said.

Very slowly, Harry's muscles loosened. He still looked exhausted, but he seemed lighter, as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. And I suppose, it sort of had been.

* * *

><p>My Christmas spirit was back in full force now I wasn't spending 95% of my time worrying about the Weasley family and Harry, and I soon realized the job of getting everyone else in the spirit of things would fall to me. I figure the best way of getting everyone in the spirit was to shove Christmas in their faces so much they could no longer deny it.<p>

I did this by decorating the house. I decided to keep my plan a secret and dragged Toby and Sam into it by not telling them what I was doing until they were already out shopping for decorations with me.

Toby gasped as he stared up at the Walmart sign, before turning to me with a glare that screamed how betrayed he felt. "I get _one day_ off from dealing with the general public… so you drag me back out to deal with the general public?!"

Heading towards the trolley stand, I rolled my eyes. "Don't be such a fucking baby, Toby."

"Yeah, this could be fun!" Sam chirped, hoisting himself into the trolley as I pushed it through the front door. "Besides, we _do_ need to start shopping for gifts."

"I already bought my gifts," Toby muttered. "Because I'm a smart shopper and don't leave it until the last minute every single year like two other people I know."

"And that's why you're here, because obviously you can teach us so much about being a smart shopper," Sam said, leaning so far out of the trolley I had to throw my body onto the back of it to stop it tipping over. A second later, he was sitting back down on his butt and unwrapping a lollipop for himself. Maybe bringing Samuel 15-going-on-5 Montero with me wasn't the greatest idea.

It didn't take long for Toby to perk up. And by perk up, I mean turn into the pretentious bitch he usually did when given the task of shopping. Fifteen minutes into our Walmart trip found him standing in front of me with a packet of yellow ornaments in one hand and a packet of blue ornaments in the other.

"The fuck is this? You call this color coordinating? My Christmas tree is not going to be a mishmash of odd colors, Bree," he said scathingly, before throwing the blue ornaments in the trolley and throwing the yellow ornaments back onto the stand beside him, picking up some white ones instead. "Step up your game," he sniffed, turning on his heel and continuing down the aisle.

I glanced down to share a look with Sam, who was busy trying not to laugh too loudly. He just shrugged at me, beginning to hum along with the Christmas tune playing in the store.

"So how's the hospital treating you?" Sam called up to Toby, where he stood examining decorations up the aisle.

"Fantastically, there's this cute girl I fixed up last week when she broke her leg and I'm taking her out to coffee," he replied, and I grinned.

"Will we get to meet her?"

"Probably won't get serious enough to introduce her to the wedding patrol," Toby said, referencing the fact that Mom's been waiting to plan our weddings since the day we were born. "She's sweet, I won't put her through meeting our parents."

"How altruistic of you," Sam muttered as I reached out and grabbed about fifteen Santa hats off of a rack, throwing them all on top of Sam where he sat in the trolley. Immediately, he picked one up and stuffed it on his own head with a wide grin.

A second later, he gasped loudly, his hand shooting up so quickly to point at something ahead of us he almost hit a passing shopper in the face. "What about that!"

Following his gaze, I saw him pointing at a singing Santa Clause doll, but Toby immediately appeared, grabbing the front of the trolley and dragging it out of the aisle before Sam could explore his new toy any further.

"No tacky Christmas decorations this year!" he ordered. "I put up with enough of that shit at Uncle Albert's every damn year. Not this time!"

Sam leant his body out of the trolley, struggling to see back into the aisle we'd just left. "But- Toby- its Santa and he sings! That's not tacky, it's festive!"

"It's tacky," Toby replied flatly, and Sam flopped back down onto his ass, crossing his arms and glaring at our older brother.

"You're tacky," he muttered.

Half an hour later we were out of the store, our arms overladen with shopping bags. Sam was back to pouting now that he had to walk again, but Toby seemed to have perked right up.

"Okay, now what?"

"There's this place down the road that sells Christmas trees, you get to chop it down yourself. So let's go do that?" I suggested, and Toby nodded.

"Cool, just let me find, like, a bathroom or something I can go into and send this stuff back to Grimmauld Place," he said. "I'll meet you guys there."

It took Sam and I about ten minutes to walk to the place Alicia had told me about, and I was not disappointed. It was literally just rows and rows of Christmas trees. Sam and I entered the gate to see a grumpy looking worker whose facial expression did not match the Santa's Helper outfit he wore whatsoever.

"Welcome to the Christmas Kingdom," he said in a bored tone of voice. "Have a look around and find the tree to make your Christmas as jolly as can be."

I thanked him before turning to walk down the nearest row, Sam not far behind me.

"That dude almost has me rethinking celebrating Christmas at all," Sam muttered when we were out of earshot of the grumpy worker. "I think we just met Jack Frost."

The trees in front of us began shuffling around then, and I jumped away from them in anticipation of some kind of animal jumping out at me, but instead the trees branches parted just enough for Toby to stick his head through.

"Is it just me or do all these trees look exactly the same?" he asked, and I shook my head.

"No, there's subtle differences. Find one that catches your eye- one that's tall, broad, and doesn't have any dead branches on it."

As I turned my back, I saw from my peripheral vision Toby mouth to Sam "that's all of them?" Fuckin' bastards.

So it took me a few minutes to find a tree I really liked further back in the lot, and I didn't hesitate to call Sam and Toby to me from where they were wandering around a bunch of trees a few meters away. Toby stopped beside me and let out a low whistle, his eyes running over the tree.

"That's a pretty fuckin big tree, Bree," he observed. "You sure that's the one you want to get?"

I rolled my eyes. "It's not even that big!"

"It's pretty big," Sam said, and I ignored him as I glanced around for a worker.

"It's not that big," I said again. "Now help me find someone to help us with it."

Sam shook his head, pulling the Santa hat he still wore down firmly. "Nah, we don't need a worker, we can do this ourselves. Bree, come help me hold it while Toby cuts it down."

"Oh- I really think we should get a worker-" I objected, giving up when I saw the boys ignoring me and moving towards the tree. "Oh, fine…"

Sam leant down to get a firm grip on the base and I grabbed onto a few of the higher up branches as Toby glanced around to see no muggles were nearby before he took his wand out of his pocket, waving it once at the base of the tree to sever it from the roots. Then, he levitated it just enough for the three of us to get a good grip on it, before lowering his wand. As soon as the spell wore off, I buckled, underestimating the weight of the tree without the assistance of magic, and the boys grips slackened enough for the tree to fall to the ground.

"Hey, how'd you get that out of the ground?"

We looked up to see the Christmas Elf from before coming towards us, looking confused.

"Uh- we- we brought our own axe," Toby said, continuing before the man could open his mouth to ask where the axe was now. "How much for this one? My brother and sister will deal with the tree, come on, I'll come pay."

Toby wrapped his arm around the man's shoulders, leading him down the row of trees and ignoring him when he kept glancing back confusedly at the two of us. Once he was out of sight, I took out my own wand and waved it, sending the tree back to Grimmauld Place.

"Right, is there anything else we need to do today?" I asked, and Sam shrugged.

"Don't think so. You gonna make me help you decorate?"

"Of course!" I cried, wrapping my arm around his and spinning, Apparating us out of the empty tree yard. We appeared a moment later on the doorstep of Grimmauld Place, and I entered the empty house with a cheery grin. Immediately, I ducked into the room beside the entryway and waved my wand, soundproofing the room. I didn't want my decorating to be interrupted by Mrs Black breaking out into screams every few minutes- that's just a mood killer. The tree was laying on its side in the room, beside the wall that held the Black family tree (of which more than half the faces had been burnt away- how cheerful).

Toby opened the door and stepped through just as I waved my wand, levitating the tree to stand straight. The top branches touched the high roof, and I winced as I saw it standing tall.

"Wow… that is a pretty big tree," I begrudgingly admitted, and Sam groaned loudly as Toby just smacked his hand over his forehead.

"I'm not even gonna say it," Toby muttered.

Before continuing any further, I switched on the radio I'd bought that day to the Christmas station. And then the decorating began.

We started at the top of the house and worked our way down to the main floor, hanging stars from the roof to dangle down between the gaps of the spiral staircase before wrapping tinsel around all the bannisters. We moved down to the kitchen, placing more tinsel around the room and placing a miniature Christmas tree from Walmart in the middle of the dining room table. Soon after, we moved back upstairs, where I plopped elf hats and Santa hats on all the decapitated House Elf heads on the wall, humming along with the radio the whole time and feeling all too cheerful considering I was dealing with the severed heads of Kreacher's ancestors.

Hmm, I'm sure they'd appreciate looking a bit more cheerful. I feel I would if I were in their place.

It hadn't taken long for Sam and Toby to get into the Christmas spirit, and soon enough Sirius had ventured down from the attic (I'm still curious about what he's doing up there with the bags of dead rats) to see what the noise was. After commenting on how big the tree was, he'd very eagerly joined in, ecstatic at the idea of having so many people in the house to celebrate Christmas and wanting to, and I quote, 'make it the best damn Christmas any of you have ever had.' With the four of us, the decorations were done and dusted just in time for the Weasley's return from St Mungoes.

I had just hoisted myself onto Toby's shoulders to put the star on the top of the Christmas tree when Mrs Black began screaming, signaling everyone's return to the house, and surprising me so much I toppled backwards off of Toby's shoulders with a scream. Sirius and Sam were quick to dive forward to catch me, and though I was glad I hadn't pummeled to my death (or concussion) and remained whole after my fall, I unfortunately couldn't say the same for the star.

"Oh, no," I lamented, bending to pick up the smashed pieces of the delicate ornament. "Now we don't have a star…"

"Why do we need it? Just hang a picture of me on the top of the tree," Sam suggested, striking a pose. "I'm all the star this house needs."

Sirius sniggered as Toby rolled his eyes, pushing Sam over from his precarious pose. I ignored them all, hurrying out to the main hallway to jump in front of the Weasley's, Harry, and Hermione to herd them all into the living room where we could speak without Mrs Black starting up again. Fred and George hurried to shove the curtains closed as everyone else followed my directions, wide grins coming to each of their faces and a few gasps sounding as they entered the most heavily decorated room of the house.

"Surprise!" I cried with a grin.

"Merry Christmas!" Toby added.

"Happy Hanukah!" Sirius announced, running out of Christmas themed things to add.

"Tree!" Sam said simply, pointing at it.

The twins entered the room then, their eyes widening as their senses were assaulted by the bright room.

"Oh, Merlin's pants," Fred breathed.

The room fell silent as they all took in the decorations. Then, Ron's voice broke the silence.

"…that's a_ really_ big tree."

"I KNOW IT'S A BIG DAMN TREE!" I yelled so loudly Mrs Black would have been screaming again if the room wasn't soundproofed. Ron jumped back in surprise at my outburst.

Mrs Weasley bustled forwards with a wide smile, throwing her arms around me in a big hug. "Oh, Bree, it's so beautiful… I can't believe you all did this!"

When Mrs Weasley moved on to hug Toby and Sam, Sirius threw his arm around my shoulders. "You lot are gonna have the best Christmas of your lives here," he announced confidently, and with a grin, I nodded. We would make damn sure of it; with all the fear and uncertainty flying around outside these walls, I was determined that we would have this holiday to be happy. We all deserved that, at least.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm so excited about the Christmas chapters. I loved this one and I'm super keen for the next one, too! <strong>

**As always, hope you're enjoying! Merry April Christmas!**


	25. The Hangover

_Skinny love, defn: when two people love each other but are too shy to admit it, but they still show it. _

* * *

><p>'No,' I said flatly.<p>

'Breeeeeeee! Come onnnnnnnnnnn!'

'No.'

'COME ONNNNNNNNNNNN!'

'Jesus, Sam, are you five? I said no.'

'…come _onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn_!'

I was currently laying on my back reading a book on my bed at the Black house. Sam had been pacing around the room for the past ten minutes- the conversation had been going pretty much the same way the whole time.

Letting out an impatient groan, he flopped down beside me and yanked the book out of my hands. I rolled my eyes, but nonetheless obliged him and dragged my gaze up to meet his.

'Bree, it's just a little party! Come on, it's Christmas- I know you love Christmas! Tis the season to celebrate and all that?' He tried lamely. 'It's perfect and you know it- our house is huge and totally empty- Mom and Dad aren't gonna be back for another week at least!'

I huffed a laugh. 'Is that supposed to be a selling point?'

'Yeah- because they never have to find out about it!'

Hoisting myself to sit up, I held his gaze. 'Give it to me straight and the answer is yes,' I promised, waiting until he eagerly nodded his head. 'What's the real reason you suddenly want a party?'

'Lee said it'd be the perfect opportunity to make Hannah fall in love with me,' he said immediately, and I groaned, flopping back down on my back.

'Haven't you learnt yet that any idea that comes from Lee is a terrible one?!' I demanded, and he shook his head.

'He has the best luck with chicks of anyone I've ever known! Stop pretending you're not even slightly tempted- you haven't been drunk since you came to England!'

My jaw dropped. 'There will be no alcohol at any party my baby brother throws!'

At that moment, a body appeared in the doorway. 'Actually there will be. There's no way I'm chaperoning a bunch of sixteen year olds if there's no alcohol for me to drink,' Toby said.

'How wonderfully irresponsible of you,' I said flatly, and he rolled his eyes.

'Don't act like the idea of a party isn't exciting for you. Besides, I've kept you both alive and out of jail thus far, haven't I?' Toby attempted to pep talk. 'Anyway, from what I've heard, none of you are having a great time at Hogwarts right now. Live a little before you're locked back up in Satan's asshole.'

Pursing my lips, I considered his words. He's right; the idea of a party was kind of exciting. It had been so long since I'd been to one. Finally, I said slowly, 'You will clean up any mess your little friends make, do you hear me?'

Sam jumped to his feet, an excited gleam in his eyes.

'Is that a yes?'

'You tell everyone to respect our home and if Mom and Dad find out, I had nothing to do with it. I wasn't even present, got it?'

'Is that a yes?!'

'Fine, yes, it's a yes!' I cried, barely stifling a laugh when Sam hopped around clapping his hands. Then he ran to the door, leant out past Toby, and yelled, 'SHE SAID YES!'

A cheer rang out from Sam's room where all the other fifth years were gathered, and then George's voice yelled 'I'LL TELL LEE!'

Toby sniggered as Sam ran from the room, and I barely fought off a grin. A party could be fun. What's the worst thing that could happen?

* * *

><p>'Girl, I look <em>fine!' <em>Angelina cried, giving her ass a little shake as she watched herself in the mirror. 'This dress was most definitely the right choice!'

'Hell yeah it was,' Fred said appreciatively. 'Not that you don't ordinarily look fine as hell.'

She spun around and grinned. 'Right answer, Mr. Weasley!'

It was the night of the party. We'd all come up with various lies to tell Mrs Weasley about why we were going to be out of the house for the night, and though she seemed a bit suspicious she allowed it. George told us not to worry about it; his Mother was always suspicious these days. I had a hunch it may have just been our terrible lying; mainly because as I went to leave the house, Sirius whispered 'Don't get too drunk,' and winked at me.

Anyway, Toby would be swinging by later to check up on things, Sam had invited the majority of his grade, and Lee had taken it upon himself to invite half of ours. I'd already sworn I wouldn't be the one to clean up the inevitable mess of the evening, and so unless Sam wanted to be grounded for the rest of his life, it would eventually be cleaned up by someone who wasn't me. So now I was just focusing on having a damn good time, and looking even better than usual whilst I did it.

The door to my bedroom slammed open, and Lee appeared, his arms cradling several bottles of booze. 'WHOSE READY TO GET FUCKED UP?!' he yelled, and Katie let out a loud cheer.

'I'm ready to get drunk and make some bad choices!' She cried with a grin, tottering over in her high heels and taking one of the bottles from him.

'THAT'S THE SPIRIT!' Lee cried with a wide grin. 'Come on, gather round!'

We all gathered in a small circle and Fred began passing out the drinks. Once we were all set, Lee raised his bottle and grinned. 'Now, I propose a toast; to getting blackout drunk and forgetting about every single one of our problems. Gang; let's party!'

We echoed his words and clinked our glasses together, before taking a drink.

Everything after that was mostly a blur.

* * *

><p>When I was pulled into consciousness the next day, I fought it valiantly. 'Not yet,' I muttered groggily, rolling over to snuggle into my pillows and try to remain unconscious for a few more hours. However, instead of finding my pillows, I found myself rolling off of a ledge and hitting a very hard surface. I hit the ground with a pained yelp, my shoulder taking the brunt of the fall. All at once, I was awake- and every single part of my body hurt, none more so than my now throbbing head.<p>

I groaned loudly, rolling onto my back carefully and opening my eyes. I saw not my bedroom ceiling, but open sky. Outdoors- not good. For a moment, I lay still, staring up at the clouds. The longer I stayed awake, the more senses returned to me. The air here felt very cool- crisp and fresh, and soon enough the sound of flowing water broke through my groggy mind.

There were no sources of running water near my home. Suddenly much more alert, I sat up and was immediately hit by a wave of nausea. I shoved my head between my knees and closed my eyes, suddenly glad of the fresh air- it felt good against my fevered body. When it eventually passed, I observed my surroundings more carefully. I was on a bridge- a very unfamiliar bridge- and my previous resting place had been a stone bench, which I attributed to my sore back. Scrambling back up onto the bench, I peered over the side of the bridge to see a very, very unfamiliar looking river.

It was most definitely not the Thames.

Swallowing thickly, I turned to observe the bridge, and spotted George sitting beside me.

'George,' I cried in relief, crawling closer to him and tugging on his sleeve. 'George, where the hell are we?'

He didn't answer, and I took a moment to observe him. His mouth was agape as he stared at something, and I very slowly followed his gaze- until my own mouth dropped open.

There, in the distance- was the Eiffel Tower.

'…We're in _Paris_?!'

For a moment, we sat side by side and stared up at the tower that lay only a few streets away.

'…Well, this is certainly the most interesting place I've ever woken up after a night out,' George eventually said, and I could only nod in response.

Then, very suddenly, he cleared his throat. 'Uh, there's a police man heading this way and eyeing us off- and I'm pretty sure we didn't stop to fill out immigration forms on our way here,' he said quietly, before taking my hand and pulling me to my feet. Immediately, the policeman sped up his walk, and George groaned before taking off into a sprint, practically dragging me behind him.

The bright sky told me it was sometime in the early morning, and so the streets were packed with people making their way to work. George had no hesitation before he dived into the crowd, yelling 'EXCUSE ME!' and forcing a gap big enough for us to get through. A few people glared and a few more yelled what I assumed was either an insult or swear. 'Sorry! I'm sorry! We're nice people, I swear!' I called over my shoulder weakly. George laughed loudly, yanking me suddenly down another street.

We ran for a few more moments, until George pushed me into a side street and I immediately dropped to my knees. My head throbbing, I let out a pained groan and clutched my churning stomach.

'Toby wasn't kidding; you really can't hold your liquor, can you?' George asked cheerily, but before I could defend myself I emptied my stomach on the sidewalk. George made an _'ick'_ sound before bending down behind me and beginning to rub my back.

'I'm not the only one who can't remember how they got to Paris,' I eventually defended myself, and George sniggered.

'Did the throwing up or that little dig make you feel better?' he challenged, and I let out a groan as I flopped back on my ass.

'Neither,' I eventually managed, and he hopped to his feet, brushing my hair behind my ear rather tenderly.

'Well, come on; there's café's everywhere. Let's get some food into you- that'll go a long way to making you feel better,' he said, helping me to my feet. Immediately, I began to sway and his hands shot to my hips to steady me, slowly leading me from the alley.

We settled ourselves at one of the outdoor tables and within five seconds, a perky waitress was at my side. 'Bonjour!'

'Bonjour,' George greeted just as cheerily. 'Do you speak English? Because we speak a grand total of zero French. Which begs the question as to what we're doing in France, doesn't it?'

The girl laughed, before replying in a heavily accented English, 'Yes, I do. Can I take your drink order?'

'I will have a coffee, and she will have a fresh juice. Something with ginger in it. Surprise us,' he requested, and she nodded, jotting it down on her order pad and then handing us the menu's she had folded under her arms.

'Alright sir, I'll be back to take your breakfast order shortly!' she said, before turning and hurrying away.

'Oh, I liked her, she called me_ sir_,' he said with a grin, before picking up the menu. I followed his lead, seeing- thankfully- English translations next to every item. 'I hear Paris is famous for its pastries- have you heard that?'

'I have, actually,' I replied with a nod. 'Well, when in Paris, do as the Parisians do, I suppose.'

He snapped his fingers. 'I couldn't have said it better myself!'

Folding my menu back up, I observed him. 'You seem very chirpy- shouldn't you be just as hungover as I am?'

He waved his hand in dismissal. 'Nah, Fred and I are famous for being able to hold our alcohol fantastically. Don't worry, though; Mum taught me that ginger is good for curing nausea. You just need that and to get some food into you and you'll be good as new.'

The waitress arrived back at our table soon enough with our drinks, and we ordered various pastries. As soon as she left, I picked up the drink and took a large gulp of it, hoping to alleviate my hangover as much as possible. Then, I took a moment to observe my surroundings. There was a thick layer of snow covering almost everything in sight, and the trees were bare of any leaves. The buildings were clearly very old, and the architecture was beautiful. One building across the street had a row of gargoyles on the top, laughing down at passers-by.

'I've always wanted to come to Paris,' I commented offhandedly, my eyes skimming above the buildings on the other side of the street and landing, once again, on the faint outline of the Eiffel Tower. 'The city of love, and all that.'

'Hmm,' George replied noncommittally, his gaze following mine. 'Well, what did you always want to do here?'

'Ooooh, I suppose I never thought about it in great detail, but I always wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and to see Notre Dame Cathedral… and to go to the Louvre… and of course to do some shopping, preferably at the Galleries Lafayette…' I listed off absentmindedly, and George snorted.

'Yes, you've clearly hardly thought about it,' he quipped sarcastically, taking a sip of his coffee. 'Anywhere else you've ever thought about going to?'

'Well… everywhere, would be the most desirable. I'd like to go to Greece; it's absolutely beautiful there, and just so rich in history. What about you?'

He shrugged. 'Never really thought about it in too much detail. We went to Egypt once; that was cool. Seeing all the tombs and the pyramids that had stood there for thousands of years. Pretty impressive, considering the ancient Egyptians were working with a couple of hammers and chisels,' he commented, gazing around at our surroundings. 'Locked Percy in with some mummies when we got bored of observing the scenery.'

I couldn't help the giggle that escaped me. 'I'm sure he loved that.'

George glanced back down at me, a cheeky grin spreading across his face. 'Turns out the ancient Egyptians had some pretty advanced locking mechanisms. Took four curse breakers almost three hours to get him out.'

'Imagine the relics he was locked in there with, though. Did he at least thank you for providing him the opportunity for such a learning experience?'

'You know, he didn't! He's always been so rude,' George commented, and I was still laughing a moment later when the waitress arrived back at our table, setting our food in front of us.

It didn't take me long to discover why people raved about the pastries in this city. I moaned loudly upon my first bite, closing my eyes to savour the taste.

'Well, you sound like you're feeling better already. Here, try some of this- it has chocolate in it,' George said, holding his fork out to me. I bent slightly and took the proffered bite, very barely able to stop myself from moaning even louder.

'This place is amazing- can we get all our food imported from here for the rest of our lives?'

'I'll look into it when we get home,' he said, and I grinned before going back to my food. 'So you still don't remember how we got to the land of the French?'

I shrugged, casting my mind back to the previous night and finding nothing solid. 'No, I don't remember much of last night at all. Just Lee shoving drinks in my hand every few minutes. Do you?'

'Nope,' he chirped. 'Not a damn thing. It's a shame, too- I imagine the story of our trip here would've been an interesting one.'

'You're so right,' I agreed. 'If we Apparated, we're lucky we didn't splinch ourselves.'

'If we caught the train, we're lucky we didn't get arrested.'

'Hmm. I do wonder how a sudden trip to Paris to sleep on one of their bridges was decided, though.'

He shrugged. 'I'm sure we'll piece together the night eventually.'

We stayed at the café for another half an hour or so, just resting after our night's adventures and enjoying as many pastries as we could fit into our stomachs. Eventually, George called the waitress back over and she presented us with the bill, a cheery smile still on her face. 'That'll be €23 today,' she chirped, and George opened and closed his mouth slightly, before looking over at me in confusion. Remembering suddenly that he had absolutely zero idea of what a euro was and thus wouldn't have any on him, I began digging in my pockets, expecting a few loose bills at best. What I found was something totally different.

George's mouth dropped when he spied the numbers on the notes I pulled out of my pocket. 'Where the hell did you get _€500?'_

Fumbling slightly in my surprise, I handed the woman one of the €100 notes. 'Uh, sorry, I don't have anything smaller,' I said nervously, and she nodded before taking off to get me my change. I turned to George, shrugging. 'I have absolutely no idea, but I'm definitely not complaining.'

He let out a low whistle. 'Seems like we had a great fucking night, doesn't it?'

'That it does,' I muttered, as the waitress returned, handing me back my change. George got to his feet before pulling my chair out for me, and the waitress stopped us before we could get any further.

'You two are a beautiful couple; I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay here!' she chirped with a wave, and I nearly choked. Before I could reply, George wound his arm around my waist and pulled me flush against him.

'Thank you! You're too kind!' he cried, returning her wave as he pulled me with him towards the street, grinning but pretending he didn't see the sudden flush to my cheeks.

Eventually overcoming my sudden embarrassment, I sighed once we reached the street.

'Guess it's home time, then.'

Pulling back from me, George scoffed. 'And why is that?'

'Uh- well- I mean, the others must be missing us- there's cleanup to do-'

Spinning back around to face me, he brought his hands up to cup my face, forcing my gaze up to meet his. 'Are you even listening to yourself right now? We are in _Paris, _Bree, and we're going to enjoy it!'

I won't lie; it really didn't take too much to convince me. Sam and Toby would be fine without me for a few more hours, right? 'So, what's the plan?'

George grinned down at me, taking my hand and beginning to pull me down the sidewalk with him. 'I suppose we'll just see where Paris takes us!'

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile, in London<strong>

Samuel Montero could safely say that last night had been one of the best nights of his life. The party had been monumental, with more and more people from both his and Bree's grade showing up as the night wore on. The music was blasting to an extent that the neighbors had begun shouting complaints (to which Fred and Lee had responded by going over to offer them all treats, which Angelina had only just barely managed to stop them all from eating before they turned into large canaries), and everyone had had a fantastic time (even Hermione and Harry had loosened up for the evening, which was what Sam had been hoping for in the first place. Well, Hermione hadn't approved, until Fred had switched her safe bottle of water with something a little stronger). Sam had never been drunk before in his life, but after last night's success he would definitely be trying it again. In his inebriated state, he'd blurted out to Hannah how he felt about her. She'd followed his admission by giggling for longer than Sam had thought possible, but she'd pecked him on the cheek and winked at him, and he'd nearly fainted on the spot.

They were going out to dinner the following week.

Operation Party: a _total_ success.

Now, though, it was morning, and Sam was experiencing his very first hangover. Awoken by a loud crash somewhere in the house, he shot up and then immediately lost his sense of gravity and fell straight back down, his head swimming and his stomach churning. Already having forgotten about what had woken him up, he merely lay still with his eyes closed for a few more moments, trying to stop the overwhelming urge to throw up the entire contents of his stomach. Internally, he cursed his sister for not preparing him for how bad this would feel.

Very, very, _very_ slowly he pushed himself back upright, blinking furiously against the harsh light and observing his house.

Or, more accurately, what remained of his house. When the party had been in full swing, the phrase 'the more the merrier' had flown around a few times. Now, he most definitely did not see the advantages.

It looked like the people who hadn't found their way home in the early hours of the morning had just fallen asleep wherever their bodies fell. There were people on the couches, on the armchairs, on the carpets, on the tiles, and one vaguely familiar seventh year's head was barely poking out of the large vase that usually housed flowers in the corner of the room.

Worse than that… was the absolute mess. The Montero's possessions were scattered all over the place; worst of all the damage was the broken front window, shattering class all over the floor, and the chandelier that had somehow fallen from the ceiling in the living room.

'Oh my fucking Merlin,' Sam moaned, before laying back down and shaking his head. This was not something he wanted to deal with whilst feeling so disgusting.

This was probably not something he would enjoy dealing with while in top spirit either, though.

_Bree will probably deal with it, _he told himself, and with that in mind he contented to roll back onto his side and continue sleeping for as long as possible, hoping he might feel better when he woke up for the second time.

Which turned out to be only a measly 42 minutes later.

'Wake up, party king,' came an unamused voice from above him, and then something began tapping him incessantly on the cheek. Sam groaned loudly and attempted to swipe whatever it was away from him, receiving only a snigger in response and the tapping coming harder.

'Let me sleep the day away,' Sam begged, surprised at how hoarse his voice sounded.

'You already have; it's midday,' the voice spoke again, and Sam finally recognized that it was Toby. Opening his eyes groggily, he found Toby sitting beside him and holding some orange juice and water crackers. When Sam met his gaze he held them out. 'You just need to get something in your stomach and rehydrate. I did warn you to drink a glass of water in between drinks.'

'Yeah, yeah,' Sam muttered, wishing he'd listened to his brother I(but unwilling to admit it to Toby) as he sat up slowly. Another glance around told him Toby had done a quick run around the house. He'd placed duplicates of a bucket next to every unconscious form- because this mess was bad enough without any vomit. Apart from that, it was very obvious Toby had not even considered touching the mess until he'd woken up the members of the cleanup crew.

By the time Sam managed to drag himself into the kitchen, the other members of the cleanup crew had been gathered. Fred and Katie sat at the kitchen table, with the small girl leaning on the redhead's shoulder, both their eyes closed. Lee was snoring on the kitchen counter, clearly the place he'd originally fallen asleep last night. Angelina had her head buried in a bucket, and Alicia was hesitantly munching on some crackers and looking ready to throw them all back up.

Toby appeared in the kitchen then. 'Ron's throwing up, so he's allowed to rest for a bit longer. Hermione is going to be bitchy in her hangover… and Harry's the boy who lived, so they both get to sleep in.'

'What? How come I don't get to sleep in?' Sam croaked, and Toby shot him a firm glare.

'Because a) this is your house, and b) the party was _your idea_, ya little doofus,' he said, walking over to the kitchen counter and slamming his hand down next to Lee's head, shocking him into consciousness. He yelped loudly, scrambling so far back in surprise that he toppled right off of the counter. Everyone winced at the scene, as Lee groaned loudly and curled up into a ball where he'd landed.

'Everything hurts,' he whimpered. 'Toby, you slave driver.'

Toby rolled his eyes. 'Look, I know hangovers suck, but this house looks like a bomb has gone off. We don't have a set date for our parents to return, and that means, for all we know, they could show up any minute. I think it's best to treat their return as imminent rather than eventual and get this mess cleaned up, okay?'

The only response was the sound of Angelina throwing up again. Toby winced sympathetically, grabbing the glass of juice Sam hadn't touched and handing it to her.

'Uh, okay, Angelina, drink some juice and take it a bit slow-'

'Yeah, you need to after last night,' Katie sniggered. 'Swinging from the chandelier takes it out of you.'

Lee giggled quietly from where he still lay with his forehead pressed to the tiles.

'-but the rest of you need to… uh…' Toby trailed off as a boy entered the room, not acknowledging any of them as he headed to the refrigerator. He opened it silently before taking out the carton of orange juice and walking straight back out of the room, unwinding the cap as he went. Their eyes all followed him until he was out the door, until Katie eventually spoke up.

'…did anyone recognize him?'

Everyone shook their heads, and Toby let out an aggravated groan. He pointed to them all in turn, speaking very slowly. 'Clean up duty has officially started. First order of action: I want everyone we are not familiar with out of this house within the next ten minutes. Everyone we are familiar with, throw some water on them and give them a goddamn broom. They partied here, they clean up!' he ordered, before turning and marching out of the room.

'…what a hard ass,' Fred spoke up, and Katie began laughing again.

'It's kinda hot,' she said, and Sam made a face of disgust.

'Okay, can we not go there please?'

Lee finally tore his forehead off of the cool tiles, grinning when he spotted Sam. 'Sammy Montero! Don't think none of us saw you putting the moves on Hannah Abbot last night!'

Hopping to his feet, Fred moved towards Lee and began pulling him to his feet.

'Why don't you guys listen to me more often? I told Sam how to get the chick, and look- _he got the chick!_' Lee cried.

'Yeah, you were also the one who told Angelina it'd be fun to swing around on the chandelier… and then she broke it,' Alicia replied, and Lee cleared his throat uncomfortably, leaning on Fred for support.

'I can't be held responsible for anyone not using their common sense when following my suggestions,' he muttered uncomfortably, pointedly ignoring the glare Angelina shot him. 'Either way, my dating advice is sound. I give George pointers all the time and he just rolls his eyes at me- I tell ya, if he gave my advice a little bit more consideration, he'd already be dating Bree.'

At Lee's words, Sam's whole body froze. Glancing around the room again, Sam thought back to his quick inventory of the house on the way to the kitchen, and found something important missing from his morning.

'Wait… has anyone actually seen Bree or George?'

* * *

><p><strong>Back in Paris<strong>

Paris was… indescribable. It hadn't taken very long for me to fall in love with the sprawling city streets, the bustling crowds, the impeccable architecture and the mind blowing pieces of art sitting on most street corners. We spent the day wandering our way through the streets, until we stumbled across the Louvre. I'd barely been able to keep still in my excitement, flitting from art piece to art piece as George watched on, amused. 'I never really understood art,' he eventually admitted, gesturing to the Mona Lisa, which he'd just spent the past ten minutes observing with raised eyebrows. 'She ain't that great, and everyone talks about her all the time.'

'Artists used to be like rock stars,' I chirped, flipping through the gallery directory I'd picked up on the way in. 'People adored them. I don't think he was the best artist of the period- Michelangelo arguably takes that spot- but Leonardo Da Vinci definitely had his merit.'

He just tilted his head sideways slightly, his eyes narrowing in confusion as he continued staring at her. I stepped in front of him and brought my hand up to point at her. 'Look,' I urged, and he ducked down so his head rested on my shoulder, allowing him to see exactly where I was pointing. 'When you look at her eyes, you can see her smiling… But when you focus back down at her mouth, it's gone. You can never know what she's thinking about- and people have been fighting about it ever since it was painted. I don't think of her as being traditionally stunning, but she's definitely beautiful in her own way. Nobody knows for sure who she was, either- some people believe she was his lover, and others believe it's Da Vinci himself disguised as a woman. There's about a million different theories, but I like the cross dressing one the most.'

When George didn't respond, I looked back to see that he'd straightened up and was staring down at me, his mouth quirked up in a fond sort of smile.

'What?' I asked, suddenly self-conscious.

'I like when you get passionate about things,' he said, his smile only widening when I blushed.

'Well, good. Because I'm never holding back on you, Weasley,' I teased.

'I know. I'd never want you to.'

And with that, he turned and walked away, leaving me grinning like an idiot in his wake.

We exited the Renaissance wing soon after, and entered into the Ancient Societies displays. George enjoyed this significantly more.

'BREE! CHECK OUT THIS STATUE!' He cried, his mouth gaping open as he stared up at a statue of the Greek God Zeus. 'Is this _marble? _How the fuck did they carve this out of _marble _and have it look almost _real?!_'

Grinning, I eyed up the statue of Zeus. 'There used to be a statue of the sun God Helios in Ancient Greece that was nearly 100 feet tall,' I told him, and he spun to stare at me with his mouth gaping.

'These people were using, like, basic hammers and chisels… this shit is insane!'

A few hours later, we exited the Louvre, still not even having made a dent in their enormous art collection. Not really having any idea of where we were going, we wandered through an archway and into a park. There were people all over the place; some relaxing in recliner chairs and soaking up the sun, some feeding ducks in a large pond, and one or two artists sketching people for cash. It didn't take long to pass a street vendor and I bought us lunch- crepes drizzled in chocolate.

'I love this place,' I said in between bites, spinning to face George. 'Let's live here. Let's buy an apartment today and stay here forever.'

'We can roll out of bed every day at midday and come straight to the Louvre. And everything we ever eat will be drizzled in chocolate.'

'We can teach ourselves French by speaking to the locals, and have dinner under the Eiffel Tower every night.'

'You'll wear a beret every day and I'll learn to play an instrument and busk as our main source of income.'

'And I can learn to paint and end up with one of my paintings next to the Mona Lisa!'

'It sounds perfect,' George laughed, slipping his fingers through mine and pulling me back to him, chest to chest. 'Let's do it. Let's stay here forever.'

'I love it,' I replied, unable to wipe the grin from my face. 'Let's start right now; I believe something was mentioned about the Eiffel Tower?'

George looked up, spying the Eiffel Tower in the distance. 'Well then, let's get going!'

* * *

><p><strong>Back in London<strong>

Once everyone unfamiliar was kicked out of the house (there had been far more gate crashers than expected), Toby and Sam had gotten out the Montero's severely lacking stock of cleaning supplies. Turning up with two brooms, a mop, and an old dish towel, Toby had begrudgingly said he'd head to the store for cleaning supplies. He'd taken his wallet out of his pocket- and completely frozen.

'No, no, no, no, no, no, no…' he muttered, suddenly looking like a trapped animal. He darted from the kitchen, and the others hesitantly followed him to see him digging underneath the couch, throwing things over his shoulder as he searched for something. 'Oh, god, where is it?!'

'Where's what?' Fred called.

He chose not to answer, or perhaps didn't hear them at all. He continued searching the house, making an even greater mess than they started with. Eventually, they managed to piece the situation together.

Toby was missing 500 euros he owed to someone at the hospital after a drunken bet, and he could not remember where he'd put it.

Sam imagined this would be troubling for Toby, but simultaneously was thankful for his brother's distraction. It gave him time to piece together his night and work out exactly where his big sister and her probably future husband had disappeared to.

'_Think, _Angelina! When was the last time you saw Bree?'

Angelina scrunched her face up, trying to remember anything from the night before. Eventually, she let out a sigh. 'Did I even see Bree last night? I don't even remember seeing her before the party… did I see her before the party?'

There was a long silence. 'Right, I think we need to keep all alcohol away from you in the future if you don't remember the _whole day_ we spent together yesterday,' Katie eventually said.

Angelina shrugged. 'It'll come back to me eventually. I'm sure it wasn't life changing enough for me to be missing much. Let me guess; you changed your hairstyle three different times before the party, and Alicia ate the majority of the food we made?'

The two mentioned girls frowned and didn't respond. Sam rolled his eyes.

'Back to the problem at hand, please,' he said, and Fred reclined back on the couch lazily.

'You Montero's worry too much,' he said breezily. 'You can be sure wherever they are, they're together, and George would dramatically and unnecessarily sacrifice his life before he let anything happen to your sister.'

'But what if they aren't together?' Sam cried.

Lee nodded thoughtfully, shoving Seamus Finnigan (whom someone had drawn crude dick images all over in marker last night- they'd all already had a good giggle over it) off of the armchair he, until this point, had been sleeping in. He hit the floor with a loud thud, and shot up, mumbling something about dragons, before groggily glancing around the room and eventually curling back up on the ground. His snores resumed as Lee took the now vacated chair.

'Yeah, I learnt last night that Bree is a drunk with a grand total of zero inhibitions. It's nearly 4 o'clock though and she hasn't wandered home yet, which in and of itself is a bit odd,' he said.

Fred shrugged. 'Well, it's clear you bunch of misfits don't know anything helpful to Sherlock Holmes's investigation, so I guess this leaves us at a dead end.'

'Maybe Harry, Ron and Hermione remember something?' Katie suggested, and Sam winced. He'd really been hoping not to have to be the one to disturb those three. Unwilling to admit this, he sighed and stood, the others following along- mostly for lack of anything better to do. They made it to the base of the stairs before a voice stopped them.

'Oh, there you are, darling!'

They all turned at the unfamiliar voice. A handsome brunette man came striding towards them, his eyes on Alicia, who just looked sort of confused. She let out a squeak when he suddenly grabbed her and pulled her towards him, his lips landing on hers.

The others watched on in varying degrees of surprise- clearly, none more so than Alicia, who pulled back from the boy with an even louder squeak.

'…Um… who are you?' Angelina eventually demanded, and the man turned to them with a wide grin, his arm wrapping around Alicia's shoulders and pulling her to his side.

'I'm so sorry- how rude of me,' he laughed. 'I'm Mitchell.'

'Okay, Mitchell,' Katie said slowly. 'Any particular reason you just lay one on our friend?'

He grinned again, kissing the side of Alicia's head. 'Well, yes. The reason being that this beautiful lady agreed to be my wife last night.'

Every single one of their jaws dropped- including Alicia's.

'She _what?!' _Angelina screeched, horrified.

'She did, did she?' Lee asked, highly amused.

Katie cleared her throat. 'Alicia, may I see you in the kitchen for a moment?'

Without waiting for an answer, she strode forwards, wrapping her hand around a shocked Alicia's upper arm and dragging her towards the kitchen, Angelina hurrying along after them. Fred, Sam and Lee stayed in place, eyeing up the newcomer, who looked like he couldn't wipe the grin off his face even if he tried.

Once safely in the kitchen, Angelina and Katie rounded on their apparently newly engaged friend.

'Um- you did what last night?!' Katie hissed, and Alicia began pacing back and forth. 'Who the bloody hell is Mitchell?'

'Oh, my God! I don't know! I have no idea who he is! I've never seen him before in my life! Why the hell would I agree to marry him?'

'Well, he is a mighty fine piece of ass,' Angelina mused, pausing when they heard his loud laugh from the living room.

'Well, if it's alright with Alicia, I would have no problem with you marrying us, Lee,' came Mitchell's voice, and Alicia's jaw dropped.

'Is he seriously in there mingling with my apparent fiancé? Holy shit, what am I supposed to tell my parents?!' she cried hysterically.

'You won't tell your parents anything, you idiot!' Angelina said, grabbing Alicia and forcing her to stop pacing. 'You're going to go into that room and tell that boy that you're a horribly romantic drunk but you have no idea who he is and have no recollection of agreeing to marry him.'

'He seems very cheery, doesn't he? You must have really romanced him, honey,' Katie said, sounding sort of proud.

'You've known each other for a few hours at best and he's ready to let Lee marry you tomorrow,' came Fred's voice as he entered the kitchen. 'Could be a keeper, Alicia.'

'Oh, god, where is he?' Alicia asked, looking sick at the thought of facing him.

'Lee sent him out to get some cleaning supplies. They took rather a liking to each other, actually,' Fred replied with a bit of a grin.

At that moment, Lee and Sam entered the kitchen.

'Well, uh… he seems lovely?' Sam said, his words ending up sounding more like a question than anything. 'Congratulations, I suppose…'

'No, not congratulations!' Alicia cried. 'He is ready to let _Lee_ marry us! How am I supposed to tell him I don't remember who he is?!'

'You're quite the heartbreaker, aren't you?' Fred asked with a grin.

'No, she isn't- that's the problem,' Angelina said. 'Does anyone remember that time in fourth year when she dated Eric Yorkshire for six more weeks after deciding to end it with him because she didn't want to hurt his feelings?'

'Oh, I'd forgotten about that. Well, with your track record, looks like you might be getting married after all,' Fred said.

Alicia flopped down to the ground, her head falling into her hands with a loud groan. After a long silence, Lee spoke up.

'I think you should marry him,' he announced, drawing everyone's eyes towards him.

'…Excuse me?' Katie asked. 'Did I hear that correctly?'

'Damn straight. I think you should marry him. Why not?'

'Why not?!' Alicia cried hysterically. 'Because I don't even bloody know him!'

'I'm just saying, he must have impressed you quite a bit last night for you to have agreed to marry him straight off the bat. You must have felt some kind of chemistry there. He seems like a cool dude. Maybe you should give him a chance?'

'…Are you just saying that because he agreed to let you marry them?' Angelina asked, and Lee grinned.

'Maybe partly. I do stand by my statement, though.'

Alicia just let out a loud groan and flopped her head down into her hands, too overwhelmed to deal with the problem.

'…Uh, maybe you just need to distract yourself for a while, Alicia. Let's focus back on finding my sister,' Sam suggested, and the others shrugged. It wasn't that he didn't care about Alicia's problem; he really did, he liked Alicia. But accidentally getting engaged to an attractive man was less of a problem in Sam's books than being missing in action. So, he turned towards the stairs to head to his bedroom, Lee and Fred following him whilst Katie and Angelina sat down beside Alicia.

'We really need to have more parties if this is what the end result is,' Fred whispered, and Lee grinned his agreement.

Reaching their destination, Sam hesitantly knocked on the door before pushing it open and sticking his head in to see what state they were all in before he risked entering with his whole body. A relieved grin spread across his face when he saw that his bedroom was still in perfect condition. If anything, it actually looked slightly better- and then Sam spotted Hermione straightening up the contents of his book case, and that cleared that mystery right up.

'We could use her downstairs,' Fred muttered to Lee, apparently noticing the same thing.

Ron and Harry looked rather worse for wear. Both of them very obviously felt very sick after drinking too much last night- they were paler than usual, with dark bags under their eyes. Sam was ready to take a more gentle approach with his ill friends, but Fred apparently had other ideas.

'You look like shit, little brother!' he cried cheerily, his grin only widening when both Harry and Ron winced at his loud voice.

'Shut up,' Ron muttered grumpily, his low tone not hiding the scratchy hue to his voice.

'Sounds like someone went a little bit too hard with his impromptu karaoke last night,' Lee sniggered. 'Probably for the best if your voice is out of action for a while. You have plenty of room for improvement before you go pro.'

'On the other hand- I had no idea you had such dulcet tones, Harry!' Fred cried, 'It was truly a beautiful thing to witness. Would you consider singing me to sleep every night?'

'Shut up,' Harry groaned, his voice sounding even worse for wear than Ron's.

Jumping in before Fred and Lee could continue, he lowered his voice to a tone more accommodating to his friends obvious headaches and spoke up. 'How are you feeling?'

Ron chucked up a rather half-hearted thumbs up; Harry nodded tiredly; Hermione chirped 'I feel excellent,' a little bit too enthusiastically, and her wince at her own loud tone didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

'Great, great,' Sam continued, ignoring Lee sniggering from behind him. 'So, uh, quick update- the house is a mess, Toby has lost €500 and might have a mental breakdown soon, someone drew dicks all over Seamus Finnigan's body- seriously, I mean it when I say all over- Alicia got engaged to a boy whose name she can't remember… uh, I think that's about all…' he stalled, before finishing in a rush, 'oh, and Bree and George are missing. Good party though, right?'

The trio stared back at Sam, looking surprised at the overload of new information. Where did one even really begin? Eventually, Harry worked it out.

'How did Alicia end up engaged to a boy she just met?'

'Haven't the foggiest,' Lee spoke up. 'Seems more like something Angelina would do, doesn't it?'

'Yes, well, we may never know what really happened,' Sam said airily, 'Anyway, do any of you happen to have any clue as to where my sister and your brother might be?'

'What do you mean… _missing_?' Hermione asked, and Sam shrugged.

'Uh, they disappeared at some point throughout the night and haven't shown up since. It's getting kind of late in the afternoon and this is rather unlike my sister, so I'm feeling a bit worried…' Sam replied, his voice trailing off as he noticed Hermione's disapproving glare.

'The two of them drunkenly wandered off and haven't been seen since? Alicia got engaged? The guests trashed your home?' She listed off. 'This whole idea was terrible! You should have never had a bloody party, the whole thing has just been startling irresponsible-'

Fred snorted, cutting her off. 'Don't act so high and mighty, we all saw you knocking that vodka back like orange juice, little miss _prefect_,' he grinned when she flushed.

Not eager to be on the receiving end of anymore of Hermione's hungover aggression, Sam cleared his throat. 'Just do me a solid and don't mention to anyone that they're missing- we're kind of trying to keep it quiet,' he said, before backing out of the room. As soon as the door shut behind him, he let out a highly nervous breath. 'Right, well, that was a bust.'

'Ah, don't worry little guy,' Fred said, patting him on the shoulder. 'They'll show up eventually.'

When they arrived back downstairs, it was to see Toby once again back to handing out orders, this time seeming much more frustrated. He clearly hadn't found his money yet.

'Angelina, you sweep; Katie, you mop; Alicia, magic the broken windows back together- ah, Sam!' Toby called, spotting his brother. 'Isn't Bree with you?'

Sam cleared his throat nervously. 'Uh, she just ducked out- for more, uh- more juice- and some cleaning supplies,' he stuttered, the famous Montero inability to properly lie rearing its head. 'She'll be back soon… ish?'

Toby raised his eyebrows. 'Whatever, she better hurry back; I haven't seen her all day. In the meantime, can you properly wake Seamus Finnigan up? He looks like he's been drugged. Tell him he can use the downstairs toilet to clean all the penises off of his body. Also, if anyone wants to admit to doing that to him, I have a high five waiting for you. It's literally the most hilarious thing I've seen all year. Good job, everybody.'

* * *

><p><strong>Back in Paris<strong>

It had ended up taking us three hours to get to the Eiffel Tower by foot. We'd meandered leisurely through the streets, stopping every now and then when I saw a shop that caught my eye or just to marvel at something we thought was kinda neat. Something wonderful about Paris is that you can see the Eiffel Tower from almost anywhere in the city, so we just headed towards it until finally, there it was, towering above us.

'It's so much bigger than I thought,' I breathed out in awe, craning my neck to take it in and trusting that George wouldn't let me run into anyone as he led me closer to it. After a short wait, we finally entered the elevator and headed to the top.

It was breathtaking. As soon as the lift doors opened, my mouth dropped as I struggled to take in the view from so high above the ground. George had to nudge me to get me moving out of the elevator doors; I was frozen. By this time of the day, the Tower wasn't as busy as I'd heard it was during the day; there were only a few other people around. I made my way to the railing, leaning down to see beneath me.

By the time we'd reached the Eiffel Tower, dusk had fallen, and it now bathed the city in a purple glow. A few stars had made their appearance already, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Below me, stretched out as far as the eye could see, lay the sprawling streets of the city of Paris. The streetlights had been turned on, illuminating the streets, and the whole city was covered in a thick layer of snow. The view was indescribable; as I stared out over the city, I felt completely lost for words.

I hadn't even realized George had left my side until he reappeared.

'For you, milady,' came his voice from behind me, and I turned only to be greeted by a beautiful red rose appearing in front of my face. A wide smile crossed my face as I met his gaze, before plucking the flower from him and holding it up to inhale its scent. It looked perfect in absolutely every way; not a flaw visible.

'George, it's beautiful,' I said sincerely, and he winked.

'Pretty flower for a pretty girl,' he said, nudging me into walking back towards the edge of the viewing deck. I spun around, hiding the sudden flush on my cheeks as my grin widened. If there was one thing George Weasley was good at, it was making someone feel special.

George let out a whistle once we were at the edge again, his eyes sweeping over the skyline. 'This is… pretty incredible,' he admitted. 'I understand why you were so interested in coming here.'

I could only nod as a breeze blew over us. So high above the ground, the wind was far chillier, and in no time I found myself shivering slightly. I wrapped my arms around myself a bit tighter, but it hardly did anything.

'Are you cold?' George asked, noticing my shiver, and I just shrugged, not wanting to bother him when it was my own fault I didn't bring a jacket. He rolled his eyes at my stubbornness, then stepped closer and looped his arm around my waist. He pulled me closer to him, pressing his body against my back and tightening his arms around my own. Suddenly enveloped in his warmth, I cuddled closer to him, holding the rose close to my chest.

'Thanks,' I chirped, and I felt him nod against the side of my head.

'Anytime, Breezy,' he replied easily, and I once again dragged my eyes down to the snow covered city. The purple of the sky was slowly darkening, the light reflecting off of the snow. I wanted to take a picture to remember this moment, but knew the photograph could never compare to the beauty of the real thing. I don't know how long we stayed like this for; I could have stayed up here for the rest of my life and not minded.

'I've never seen anything so beautiful,' I whispered, and George shifted behind me.

'I have,' he replied just as quietly, his voice sounding somewhat strained. I turned my head to ask if he was alright, but my words completely escaped me when I met his gaze. He was already looking down at me, his eyes soft with an emotion I couldn't quite place, but that blew me away all the same. Slowly, a smile spread across his face as I just continued to stare up at him. 'Hi there,' he said simply, his face so close to mine that his breath ghosted across my cheek.

'Er- hi,' I replied, feeling suddenly flustered. Did George feel this? The sudden tension in the air? Maybe it was just me, because when he spoke next his voice still sounded light and airy.

'Are you alright? You look a bit flushed. Are you still cold?'

Clearing my throat and giving myself a bit of a shake for being so ridiculous, I pulled myself away and put a safe distance between us. 'You're a bit _too_ warm,' I lied, ignoring his raised eyebrows as he eyed off the snow around us. He didn't say anything though; he just laughed, a sudden grin splitting across his face.

'I got something for you,' he said, his voice clearly showing how much he was trying to hide his sudden excitement.

Gesturing down at the flower, I asked, 'you mean other than this?'

He nodded enthusiastically, and I watched curiously as he dug in his jeans pocket, before pulling out a woven bracelet and holding it out to me. My eyes widened in surprise as I took it in; it was gorgeous- blue, green, black and white all crisscrossing together. And it looked very familiar…

'I saw you looking at these when we passed through the markets; so I got one for you, and one for me,' he said, uncurling his other hand and revealing a second bracelet, slightly larger than the one intended for me. He sounded sort of nervous as he observed my reaction. 'I… I thought you would like it…'

I grinned so widely and so suddenly it sort of hurt my cheeks. 'Oh, George… I do like it- no, I love it,' I cried, standing on my tiptoes and kissing him on the cheek before bringing my hands up to frame his face, forcing his gaze to meet mine again. 'I love it, and I love how thoughtful you are.'

I dropped back onto the heels of my feet, taking his bracelet and motioning for him to hold out his wrist so I could put it on him. He soon followed suit, and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face looking down at the bracelet. It was gorgeous- and we _matched._

'I can't believe I'm lucky enough to have you,' I admitted, and his gaze softened.

'I think you have it twisted, Breezy; I'm definitely the lucky one,' he said quietly, pulling me to his side, which I eagerly cuddled closer to.

Full darkness fell sooner rather than later, and we eventually decided that it was getting late. 'I don't want to go back,' I murmured, taking one last look over the skyline before George pulled me with him to the elevator.

'We'll come back,' he swore. 'And then we'll go to Rome, and then to Greece, and to anywhere else our hearts desire.'

I pulled my head away from where it was resting against his shoulder so I could look up at him. 'Promise?'

'Promise.'

* * *

><p><strong>Back in London<strong>

Seamus Finnigan had been scrubbed free of all the dick drawings on his body, all the unwanted teenagers had been sent home, the windows had all been repaired, the chandelier was reattached to the ceiling, the broken glass was all gone, and the spilled alcohol and vomit had been cleaned up.

Toby was still missing €500. Alicia hadn't worked up the guts to tell Mitchell that she didn't remember agreeing to marry him, and had been hiding from him ever since he arrived back with cleaning supplies. Hermione still seemed to be in a spectacularly bad mood, and last, but certainly not least… Bree and George were still missing.

Sam wasn't coping that well. He'd taken to pacing the length of the living room muttering to himself. Fred was still maddeningly relaxed about the whole thing.

'It's nearly ten o'clock at night! The whole party was my fault, she didn't want to have it in the first place, but I made her agree and now she's gone!' Sam cried hysterically.

'Hey, stop beating yourself up; Lee was the one who suggested a party, so technically this is all his fault,' Fred said, ignoring Lee's affronted look.

'You do seem rather calm considering your brother has disappeared,' Angelina commented, and Fred shrugged like it was obvious.

'We're_ twins._ If anything ever happened to George, you can bet I'd know about it before anyone else.'

They lapsed into silence then, until a noise from the kitchen caused Alicia to dive behind the couch.

'Oh, for God's sakes, Alicia! It's not Mitchell!' Katie cried, nudging her off from where the blonde had landed half on her legs. Satisfied, Alicia hopped back up onto the couch- until a hand appeared on her shoulder, and Mitchell appeared beside her. Katie grinned unrepentantly in response to her glare.

'What's going on, everyone?' he asked, settling himself on the arm of the couch beside Alicia.

'Oh, nothing too interesting, Mitchell!' Lee piped up, a little bit too enthusiastically.

'Maybe _you_ should marry him,' Katie muttered quietly, and Lee hummed.

'If it was legal, I would,' he muttered back.

A noise on the stairs drew their attention, and Toby appeared. He flopped down on the armchair closest to the fire, running his hand tiredly through his hair. 'I'm ready for bed,' he announced. 'This cleaning thing is exhausting. I don't know how Bree does it.'

They all froze when Toby suddenly glanced around the room, clearly realizing that his sister wasn't present. They were saved having to find a way to change the topic of conversation when Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived from the kitchen, all munching on some crisps.

'Ron! Harry!' Sam practically yelled at them, startling them so much they both jumped. 'How are you feeling?!' he demanded, trying anything to avoid meeting his brothers suddenly suspicious gaze.

'Yeah, alright,' Ron shrugged. 'How are you? Is your sister still missing?'

The room fell absolutely silent as six pairs of horrified eyes suddenly fell to Ron.

'…What? What's wrong?'

Very slowly, Toby turned to Sam, his mouth agape. 'Did he just- _did he just say that Bree is missing?'_

Sam looked like he'd gone into shock. For a moment, he just opened and closed his mouth, staring at his brother in horror. Eventually, Fred leant forwards and cleared his throat. 'If it helps any, George is missing with her.'

'IT DOESN'T!' Toby very suddenly yelled, shooting to his feet. 'So all the excuses you've been making today about her disappearance, it's all been a load of shit to hide the fact that you fucking _lost our sister?!'_

'I mean- I've looked everywhere for her! She's not at Grimmauld Place or anywhere else she'd be likely to disappear to! And I mean, we just assumed she'd reappear eventually, and I knew you'd totally freak out- like you are right now, and-'

'Of course I'm freaking out! She's our sister, not the pet lizard you lost as a kid! You can't just have a half-assed look and then shrug it off!'

Sam huffed. 'I understand this is upsetting, Toby, but there was no need to bring up Lizzie, you know how much it hurt me when she went missing-'

'Oh my God,' Toby groaned, running his hands through his hair nervously. 'Holy shit. How long has she been gone for?'

'Uh, so far as we can tell, the last time she and George were spotted was about 10pm last night,' Fred supplied.

'10pm?! She's been gone for nearly 24 hours and nobody thought to inform me?! Are you kidding me?! Merlin's pants, I've been spending all day cleaning and laughing at Seamus Finnegan having dicks drawn on him whilst my sister could have been kidnapped?!'

'I doubt she's been kidnapped-' Angelina spoke up, sounding alarmed, but Toby once again interrupted.

'WHY DID ANYONE THINK A PARTY WAS A GOOD IDEA?! YOU KNOW SHE'S A LIGHTWEIGHT! SHE NEVER DRINKS SO WHEN SHE DOES SHE GOES CRAZY! AND NOW SHE'S GONE! SHE'S GONE FOREVER!'

'Woah, I really don't think she's gone forever, just temporarily-' Katie cried, and this was the moment that Sam jumped to his feet. Confident that Sam was about to slap some sense into his brother, they all let out the breaths they'd been holding- until Sam actually spoke.

'WE HAVE TO GO TO THE MINISTRY! WE NEED TO CALL THE POLICE! SHE COULD BE IN DANGER! SHE COULD BE LYING IN A DITCH SOMEWHERE ALL ALONE!'

Toby began yelling again, his and Sam's voices quickly mingling together as their panicked theories got steadily wilder. Fred and Katie both jumped to their feet, trying to diffuse the situation and calm them down, trying to yell loud enough that the Montero boys would hear them.

'These guys seem a bit… unhinged,' Mitchell said unsurely, rubbing his thumb over Alicia's shoulder. 'Maybe we shouldn't invite them to the wedding.'

Suddenly overwhelmed, Alicia jumped to her feet and spun to face him before she even realized what she was doing. 'I CAN'T MARRY YOU! I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU! I'M SORRY, I DON'T REMEMBER A THING ABOUT LAST NIGHT! YOU COULD BE VERY CHARMING AND A FANTASTIC FIANCÉE BUT I JUST DON'T REMEMBER A GOD DAMN THING!'

Mitchell gaped up at her as Lee groaned loudly.

And amongst all the yelling, not one person noticed the front door opening and said two missing teenagers appearing in the doorway.

* * *

><p>'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!' I screamed, and suddenly the room fell silent as everyone's eyes drifted to me. For a moment, we all just stared at each other, them looking as surprised to see us as we were to see them in the midst of a screaming match. Then, they all screamed mine and George's names in unison.<p>

Toby jumped over the back of the couch and threw himself at me, Sam close behind. I screamed in surprise as my brothers wrapped their arms around me, pulling me into a hug so tight I could barely breathe.

Fred approached his brother with a wide grin, clapping him on the back. 'Bout time you showed back up,' he said, and George shrugged.

'Did we miss much?'

'Uh, more neurotic Montero tendencies. Nothing you won't see in the future.'

Sam pulled away from me then, Toby following- and smacked me on the arm. 'WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!'

'YOU SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH!' Toby yelled. I gaped at them for a moment, before narrowing my eyes and punching them both in their shoulders.

'Are you guys for real? Don't be so ridiculous! Toby, you disappeared for three months to Hawaii with a girl you'd just met after you graduated Walden- and didn't bother to let us know for two weeks!' I scolded, and Toby at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed. 'C'mon, I'm not a little girl anymore. You guys know I can take care of myself.'

Sam shuffled his feet awkwardly, and I took a moment to really observe my brothers. Beneath their scolded demeanor, they both still looked genuinely afraid that perhaps I'd been hurt. My gaze softened.

'Thank you both for worrying about me, but I'm fine. I _swear._ George was with me,' I shrugged.

Sam swallowed thickly and glanced around at all the people around us before shuffling closer. He lowered his voice when he next spoke in a clear attempt to keep what he was about to admit private. 'I just- with You-Know-Who back… I'm so used to assuming the worst now. I got scared when you weren't here.'

'Oh, Sam…' I murmured, stepping forward and pulling him into a tight hug. A second later, Toby wrapped his arms around the two of us.

'I know I'm not the poster boy for responsibility, but… please, a little bit of warning next time?' he asked quietly. Pulling back, I smiled up at him fondly and nodded.

'Love you,' I said quietly, and they both returned the sentiment quickly. We lapsed into silence then, until Angelina eventually broke it.

'So… where _have _you two been?' she asked, her eyes clearly focused on the rose still clutched in my hand.

A smile crossed my face as I glanced back at George. I would tell the girls all about it tomorrow; for now, I was starting to feel the exhaustion brought on by a drunken night and a subsequent day wandering around an unfamiliar city. And besides; it might have been dumb, but I kind of wanted to keep today between George and I for a little longer.

'I'll tell you tomorrow. For now, I would really, really like to get some sleep,' I ended up saying simply.

'I'll walk ya up,' George offered. 'I gotta use the loo.'

I nodded, and the two of us turned towards the stairs. Unbeknownst to us, everyone's eyes followed us as we climbed the stairs.

'Is it just me… or do things seem different between them?' Katie whispered to Lee, and he slowly nodded his agreement.

'Well, I'm gonna jump in the shower,' Angelina yawned, getting to her feet. 'Time to follow Bree's lead and head to bed, I think.'

Slowly, everyone headed their own way, until it was just Alicia and Mitchell left in the room. She took a deep, nervous breath before she spoke.

'Look, I'm really sorry for yelling at you. I'm not usually a yeller, I just… I feel really terrible. You've been so kind to me all day and I don't remember anything about meeting you last night.'

He shrugged. 'I knew we were both drunk last night, but… you're beautiful, Alicia. I met you and I thought… I don't know, I thought that something just clicked between us. I wanted to get to know you better. I suppose it was just wishful thinking that maybe you'd remember me come morning.'

Flushing, she dropped her gaze. Then she thought about what Lee had said; now that they were having an actual conversation, Mitchell was quite kind. And she must have liked him last night to agree to marry him...

'Would it be too forward to ask you out to dinner sometime? No wedding feast, just a simple dinner,' he joked, and she couldn't help but laugh slightly. Then she decided, for the first time in as long as she could remember, to take Lee's advice.

'I would like that.'

Immediately, an ecstatic smile spread across his face. 'Great.'

Upstairs, George and I walked in silence. He shot me a small smile as he veered off towards the toilet, and on a whim I grabbed his hand to stop him. He looked back at me curiously, and it took me a moment to gather myself.

'I… I forgot about everything today,' I eventually managed. 'There was no party to clean up the mess from; no brothers to take care of; no final exams to study for and worry about; no… no scars on my hand…' I trailed off, and George absently ran his thumb over the words on the back of my hand, his eyes never leaving mine, '…no You-Know-Who, or Order of the Phoenix. No problems… just pure happiness.'

I smiled up at him then. Just pure happiness… because honestly, nobody in this world made me happier than George Weasley did, every single day of my life. The realization hit me with a shock.

'I wish I could spend every day like this… with you,' I confessed, so quietly I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't hear me at all. But he did. Reaching out, George wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me to his chest, enveloping me in a warm embrace.

'I'm not ever going anywhere. And if I do, you're coming with me,' he said, tugging me tighter against him and kissing the side of my head. Eventually pulling back, I met his gaze- and lost all words.

He was staring down at me with that same expression- the one from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Suddenly flustered, I swallowed thickly.

'George… I…'

'Yo, Bree, can I use your shower? Katie's already in the one downstairs and- _oh_!'

I jumped back from George, suddenly realizing just how close together we'd been, and turned to see Angelina staring at us with wide eyes.

'Uh, yeah, of course!' I squeaked, gesturing towards the bathroom. 'Go ahead. Uh, I'm gonna go to bed. Night.'

With that, I turned on my heel, avoiding both their gazes, and strode into my bedroom, hurriedly closing the door behind me and falling back against the wall as soon as I was safely inside. A glance up found that I was directly in front of the mirror, showing me my flushed cheeks.

Merlin's pants, what the hell was that? I didn't even know what I'd been about to say to George before Angelina interrupted. And he'd never looked at me like that before…

I took a deep breath and decided I must have still been feeling a bit unwell from the night before- or perhaps I was coming down with a bug. That was the only way I could explain my flushed face and the butterflies going wild in my stomach. So, I spent the rest of the evening locked in my bedroom asleep, thankful the girls had all apparently found places other than my bed to rest in for the evening, and by the next morning, I felt healthier than ever.

* * *

><p>George flopped down on the couch beside his brother, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. 'I'm bloody exhausted,' he groaned, letting out a yawn.<p>

'Where _have _you been?' Fred asked curiously.

'Paris,' George replied easily, and Fred's eyes widened in slight surprise.

'Didn't see that one coming,' he said.

Shrugging, George opened his eyes and looked back over at his brother and his best friend, who was flipping through one of Bree's gossip magazines. 'Yeah, neither did I. Bree and I don't remember a damn thing from last night; I was kinda hoping one of you would remember how Bree and I ended up in another country.'

'Bree said she's always wanted to go to the City of Love, and you said you'd take her. It was beautiful, actually; you told her that you loved her more than anyone in the world, so it was only fitting that you'd take her. And then, poof! You were both gone,' Lee said easily, his eyes staying on the magazine. Eventually he noticed the surprised silence that followed his words, and he looked up to find both boys staring at him. 'What?'

'Really? I- I told her that?' George asked hesitantly, flushing a dark red.

'Yep,' Lee said simply. 'If only you did it when you were sober, huh?'

'…Are you saying you remember what happened last night?' Fred eventually asked.

'Yes.'

'You remember Angelina swinging from the chandelier?'

'Yes.'

'You remember who drew dicks all over Seamus Finnigan?'

'Yes; it was me, obviously.'

'You remember Alicia getting engaged?'

'Yes.'

'You remember Bree and George disappearing… and you never mentioned where they were?'

Lee huffed. 'Well, excuse me! But when we woke up this morning to find them missing, it never once occurred to me that George _actually_ would have taken her to _Paris!_'

They all fell into silence.

'Fair call,' Fred eventually said. 'Guess we won't be underestimating those two again.'

George just flushed again. He needed some Panadol.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, hello everyone! I feel terrible about the huge lack of updates over the past few months. I went to Europe for a few weeks in MayJune, and then when I got back it was like I'd forgotten how to write. I knew what I wanted to come next in the story, but I just couldn't make it happen. So eventually, I decided to stop trying to force it, and just let it come naturally- and voila, this is what I came up with! I'm so happy with this chapter. It's so long, I thought about splitting it into two but I couldn't find a suitable place to do it. Anyway, I hope that this makes up for the lack of updates! Bree and George are back!**


	26. That Incessant Montero Cheer

"Paris," Katie breathed in awe. "He took you to _Paris."_

"He gave you a flower on the top of the goddamn Eiffel Tower," Angelina gaped up at me, before flopping back on my bed and staring at the ceiling. "That's so unfair. You got a flower on top of the Eiffel Tower and I got a mop to clean up vomit."

It was around ten in the morning, and the girls and I had all curled up on my bed with no intention to move for the rest of the day. We'd gathered our supplies and had about six bags of chocolate cookies surrounding us, which I was chewing on when I answered.

"It was without a doubt the best day of my life," I said, my gaze trailing to the flower George had given me where it now sat in a vase on my bedside table. Unable to help it, a smile stretched across my face.

'Look at that grin,' Alicia giggled, nudging me with her elbow. 'You're practically _swooning_.'

Trying to fight it just made me grin widen against my will. 'I am not swooning,' I argued, picking up another cookie and shoving it in my mouth in an effort to stop myself from grinning.

'The whole thing sounds maddeningly romantic,' Angelina sighed. 'I think you've made the cut, Bree; this is going in my book.'

'I feel honored.'

Katie finally sat back up to rejoin the conversation. 'I can't believe that he gave you a red rose on the top of the Eiffel Tower after leading you around Paris all day and you made it home still a virgin,' she said, and I choked so thoroughly on the cookie that Alicia had to start thumping my back to clear my airway.

'Yeah, that won't be the turnout in my book, that's for sure,' Angelina said, and my jaw dropped as I stared at them.

'Oh my God!' I cried, and they both shrugged unrepentantly. 'Right, moving on, please!'

Angelina and Katie glanced at each other. 'Well, I mean, have you ever thought that maybe you and George could be… more than friends?' Angelina asked carefully, and my eyes widened in surprise.

Before I'd even had time to consider her words, I blurted out 'no! No way! Me and George? Are you kidding? No, that would never work. No way. Nooooooooooo.'

'Why not?' Alicia queried.

'Because… well, because…' I shook my head to gather my thoughts. 'It just wouldn't. We're… incompatible.'

Katie raised her eyebrows. 'The other week he blessed you before you'd even sneezed. You two are literally completely in sync.'

'We are not. We're just friends; it's not romantic,' I said, shifting uncomfortably. 'I thought we were changing the subject.'

They all ignored my request. 'Oh, _just friends_ take each other to Paris now?' Katie said sarcastically. 'Well then ladies, where's my flower on top of the Eiffel Tower?'

'Have you ever thought that the reason this topic makes you so uncomfortable is because you secretly maybe _do_ have a thing for George?' Alicia asked, and all at once my shoulders stiffened and I shot them all a glare.

'That's ridiculous. Stop being annoying," I said flatly, and thankfully my tone warned them that I was serious and they dropped the topic- not before sharing a glance that was a little bit too meaningful for my tastes. Just in time, though, because at that moment the door opened and the rest of the occupants of the house trickled in.

Sam sighed loudly before flopping face first down onto my bed. 'Toby is being insufferable,' he groaned. 'He's threatening Ron into investigating his stolen money when term starts back.'

'Why Ron?' Angelina queried, and Fred shrugged.

'Probably because he's the weakest link. Ya know, in the absence of Neville Longbottom.'

Angelina shrugged her agreement, but I was confused. 'Wait, Toby's missing money?' I asked, as George and Fred settled themselves down beside me.

'Yeah, someone stole €500 from him at the party,' Katie said, and simultaneously George's and my eyes widened.

My mouth gaped open for a moment as George blinked owlishly. 'Oh,' he eventually said slowly, and I leant over the bed to grab the €200 we had left out of the pocket of my jeans that were discarded on the floor from the day before.

'Right, here's the plan,' I said quickly, as everyone's eyes fell to the money and varying looks of disbelief crossed their features. 'We found it at the bottom of the laundry hamper-'

'He already checked there,' Sam supplied, a sly grin crossing his features.

'-Okay, we found it under the couch cushions-'

'He already checked there, too,' Fred sniggered. 'He was very thorough.'

'FUCK!' I cried loudly. 'Where can we have found it?'

'How about you admit you stole his money? I personally would like to see how that plays out,' Sam said.

'Well, I mean, I highly doubt that I would've _stolen_ it from him!' I cried.

'Try telling him that,' Sam commented lazily, and at once I grabbed his collar and pulled him up to face me.

'Listen here, you little bitch, if I go down, you're going down with me,' I snarled, and Sam gulped thickly. 'So unless you want to feel both the wrath of Toby for stealing his money _and _our parents for throwing a party so wild someone broke our chandelier, then you better think on your damn feet.'

'You wouldn't-'

'TOBY!' I yelled, and in a second he was standing in the doorway, chewing on piece of caramel candy lazily. His eyes widened when I held up the wad of money, and he let out a cry as he rushed forward to grab it from me.

'Oh my God! Where was it?!' he yelled, and I nudged Sam forward. For a moment, he just blinked owlishly up at Toby, before swallowing thickly and stuttering out, 'Er, uh… in… Dad's desk drawer. One of Dad's desk drawers. Specifically the upper drawer.'

Toby raised his eyebrows. 'I thought the door to Dad's office was locked during the party?'

'Uh… true! That is very true! That was a precaution we were taking, wasn't it?' Sam cleared his throat, and then left it at that. Toby's eyebrows slowly raised higher as we all waited for Sam to continue, which it soon became apparent he would not be doing.

'Guess someone was sober enough to magically unlock the door,' George commented idly after a long silence. 'Half of your dad's pens are missing, too.'

'Could've been around the time Seamus Finnigan fell asleep and had dicks drawn all over him,' Fred added.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Jesus Christ, this cover up is fucking embarrassing.

'I wonder why they only took half of it,' Toby said curiously, and I shrugged.

'You know what they say,' I chirped. 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.'

Simultaneously, Fred and George's eyes shot to me.

'Why can't you look a horse in the mouth?' George asked, sounding confused.

'Why would someone give you a gift horse?' Fred added.

'Seems an odd thing to do.'

'Yeah, if I was gonna ask for any animal as a gift, it would be something cool like a dragon.'

'Maybe we should ask Bill for a dragon for Christmas.'

'Might not be legal. And you'd definitely not want to look a dragon in the mouth.'

'Yeah, but why not a horse? They don't breathe fire. I'm not sure there's anything to really be afraid of from a pet horse.' Simultaneously, they both turned back to look at me. 'Bree, why can't you look a gift horse in the mouth?'

I just groaned and flopped back on the bed, covering my face with a pillow.

* * *

><p>The next few days were unbelievably boring, as they tended to be at Grimmauld Place. Sirius and Lupin were the only occupants of the house I'd shared my Parisian adventure with, to which Sirius did not disappoint and laughed uproariously at. Lupin had looked mildly disapproving, until Sirius had begun recounting some of their more rebellious adventures and Lupin had joined in happily.<p>

Anyway, that was a week ago. Eight days ago, to be exact. Eight boring as shit days. Today was worse. The Weasley's had all taken off to the hospital; Hermione had gone to lunch with her Mom; Sam had gone last minute gift shopping with Toby (and made up a ridiculous excuse that made no sense whatsoever and then fled before he inevitably revealed that it was me he was shopping for); Remus, Tonks, Mad-Eye and Mundungus hadn't been around for a few days and I hadn't seen Snape or McGonagall since school finished. Seriously, even Snape could provide a smidgeon of entertainment. That's how desperate I am.

So it was just Harry, Sirius and I in the house, and we'd run out of things to talk about quite a while ago. The last words spoken had been forty minutes ago when Sirius had commented that he hoped Molly would make good on her word and make pork chops tonight and Harry had agreed. I had learnt, however, that Sirius's cheerful attitude was a rather recent development. He'd spent every single day in this dark and dreary place since we took off for Hogwarts again, and frankly I would take Umbridge over being alone in this place any day of the week. Anyway, he slipped back into a pretty depressed state anytime the house emptied due to the fact that he was unable to leave for even a moment. He was so cheerful with everyone here that it sort of broke my heart to see him so melancholy.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and went back to my potions essay, which was proving to be even more tedious than sitting in complete silence. Harry also looked to be working on a piece of homework for good old Severus, and Sirius was reading the Daily Prophet.

After a few more minutes, Sirius placed the paper down and stood to retrieve a drink from the other side of the kitchen, though I don't think Harry noticed him at all. He had been a lot more cheery since he learnt for certain that You-Know-Who wasn't playing around inside of his head, but he was still very obviously stressed (for good reason, too). I looked up just in time to see him rubbing the lightning bolt scar on his head for about the sixth time in ten minutes, and decided to speak up.

"Are you alright?" I asked quietly, and he continued rubbing it absentmindedly.

"I've been having nightmares," he muttered, before his head shot up and he seemed to remember who he was talking to. He looked horrified, like he'd revealed something he shouldn't have, which only concerned me more. What sort of nightmares?

I recognized the look that came over him then. He thought he'd said too much- he was shutting me out. Sirius arrived back at the table then, throwing himself heavily into his chair at the head of the table. Simultaneously, they let out quiet sighs, but seemed not to notice each other's moods.

I honestly couldn't take it anymore.

My chair let out a loud screech as I shot to my feet. They both started at the loud noise, looking up at me with similar looks of confusion.

"Get up," I ordered, and for a moment, they merely stared at me. "Get up!" I repeated, louder and more forceful, and they both seemed to realize I wasn't playing around. They both shot to their feet, looking at me for further instructions. With a grin, I nodded towards the doorway. "Come on."

"Where?" Sirius called, but I merely repeated the instruction and, without anything better to do, they both followed me out of the kitchen.

"Where are we going, Bree?" Harry asked in confusion as we passed the main staircase, falling silent as I came to a stop beside the front door.

Spinning around on my heel to face them, I finally let a wide smile break out across my face. "Outside," I said simply.

Nervously, Harry looked at Sirius, as though asking him what to do. "But- I thought we weren't supposed to leave the house-"

With a sigh, Sirius's whole body slouched. "Harry's right, Bree," he said in resignation. "I'm on _house arrest_."

"Oh, fuck house arrest!" I cried, and they both looked startled at my sudden swearing. "This is ridiculous and you both know it! I mean, yeah, obviously it's safest to sit inside all day every day and never risk anyone spotting you, but, my God, that's not living! Death Eaters and Ministry workers aren't patrolling the streets searching for any sign of you- and for Merlin's sakes, you're a secret animagus! So switch over to doggy mode and come play in the damn snow with me!"

For a moment, they both just stared at me in surprise, and I took a step forwards.

"Are you Sirius Black or not? You're a _legend_ at Hogwarts for your dangerously reckless behavior. Have you really changed so much? Take a risk, Sirius!" I taunted, knowing that if there was one thing Sirius Black could not stand for, it was a challenge.

He narrowed his eyes, as a wide grin slowly spread across his face. In a second, he had transformed into a dog, and I clapped my hands together excitedly, skipping forwards to open the door. I had just reached it when I mockingly gasped, spinning around.

"Wait! Where's your leash?"

Sirius let out a bark and rolled his eyes, nudging Harry's leg when he laughed, our excitement easily spreading to the dark haired boy. I opened the door and Sirius went sprinting outside, Harry and I close behind him. For a moment, Sirius looked sort of overwhelmed; I hadn't forgotten this was his first time outside in months. He looked up at the sky for a second, before he dropped down to the ground, rolled onto his back, and began wiggling around in the snow. I laughed loudly at his antics, throwing myself down beside him and throwing my arms out to make a snow angel. Once satisfied, I sat up to admire it, only to have something cold collide with the side of my face. Squealing loudly at the cold, my head shot up to see Harry standing a few feet away, already rolling another snowball up between his hands. I shot to my feet, sprinting towards him, and he backed up whilst throwing the snowball at me in an attempt to slow me down. It failed, and a second later I had tackled him into the snow, before pushing the snow up on top of him and straddling his waist so he couldn't wriggle away. I remembered then how contagious Harry's laughter was; I hadn't heard it in such a long time.

Eventually he managed to push me off and called a truce, brushing the snow out of his hair mostly unsuccessfully. I heard excited barking from behind me and turned to see Sirius running in a circle, chasing his tail.

"I haven't seen him this happy in a really long time," Harry said quietly, and I turned my gaze to him. Instead of answering properly, I got to my feet, brushing the snow off of my thighs before extending my hand to him and pulling him to his feet.

"It's snowman building time, Potter!" I declared, and he grinned. Over the next hour or so, we played around in the snow. I felt carefree; like a child again. And clearly, I wasn't the only one. I hadn't seen Harry and Sirius so happy in such a long time that I hardly remembered when the last time was. Sirius sprinted around, chasing pigeons, sniffing the ground, and playing with a group of warmly dressed small children nearby us, chasing a ball they threw for him. Occasionally he would return to see what Harry and I were doing, letting out a bark of approval to see how far our snowman family had progressed. At one point, he stood on his hind legs and threw his paws over Harry's shoulders, giving his face an enthusiastic lick and looking very pleased with himself when Harry began laughing.

But unfortunately… it eventually had to come to an end. Sirius eventually flopped down onto the snow, and though he had a warm fur coat to keep him cozy, Harry and I had not stopped to bundle ourselves up before our little field trip. I whistled to get Sirius's attention, and nodded back to Grimmauld Place. He slowly trudged to his feet as we all headed back into the house, shaking his fur out on the doorstep and showering Harry and I in water, barking in response to our loud laughter.

When we got back inside, Sirius transformed back into a human, his nose red from the cold and the biggest grin I'd ever seen upon his face- suddenly, he looked just like the teenager in the photograph on his bedroom wall. The carefree sixteen year old before the breakout of the war, before the death of his friends, and before his time in Azkaban. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. And neither did the Boy-Who-Lived, who hadn't had an opportunity to act like a kid in far too long. We all headed to different levels of the house to warm up in the showers, and if the Weasley's thought it odd that we'd all been showering when they returned, they didn't say anything.

* * *

><p>Sirius remained cheery and excitable for the rest of the week, barely wiping the grin off his face for even a moment. The rest of the occupants of the house… I could not say the same for. Nobody more so than my big brother, who could be heard muttering at almost any given time of the day about how much his case load always increased at Christmas time and that 'idiotic people should stop trying to use magic to create gifts and just fucking buy them like normal people.' But anyway, I didn't let it get me down. Take today, for example- with only three days out from Christmas, I was baking up a storm in preparation. I'd requested everybody's help, but at the moment only Sam, Harry, and Ron were helping out. The three boys had been rather unexcited, but it really didn't take very long for them to get into the spirit of things.<p>

'And see, we can make them into different shapes,' I said, pulling a crescent moon cookie cutter out of my baking box and pressing it into the batter Ron had just finished flattening. 'And then you put it onto the baking tray, and it bakes in that shape.'

Ron, I'd come to realize, had never baked anything in his whole life, and he was actually quite enjoying learning some of the wonders of the kitchen.

'What other shapes do you have?' he asked excitedly, digging through the box to find one that looked like Santa's hat. He pressed it into the dough with a gleeful grin.

'See- it's fun!' I cried, moving to take our first lot of fudge- which Harry had excitedly helped me stir- from the oven to transfer it to a cooling rack. 'So we've already got fudge and shortbread, I think we could make some chocolate chip cookies soon- Sam, you're off duty for that, because I'm sick of you eating all my batter-'

'Aw, Bree, come on!'

'-and then if anyone has any suggestions, I'll see what we can do!'

I was interrupted at that moment, however, by the front door of the house slamming open and shut. The next thing audible was very loud singing.

"DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF HOLLY, FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA!"

At this point, Mrs Black decided she would join in the noise and began screaming about blood traitors, somewhat belying the festive spirit of our new guest. Sirius shook his head, continuing to read the paper, and Toby let out a very loud sigh to alert everyone to his continued suffering.

"What pest do I have to deal with now?" he muttered. Mostly ignoring the situation, I went back to cutting cookies in the shape of crescent moons until the kitchen door slammed open and we could no longer ignore the new visitor.

"Looks like someone's been decking these halls since I was last present- and if my eyes don't deceive me, it looks like a Montero deck?" Recognizing the voice, my eyes shot up to meet the cheerful face of my Father.

"Oh. _That_ pest," Toby observed.

"DAD!" I cried gleefully, throwing myself at him. Laughing, he easily caught me, and then opened his other arm for Sam, who quickly joined in. "It's about time you showed up!"

"Yeah! We were beginning to worry you weren't going to make it home in time for Christmas!" Sam cried.

"Does this mean you don't want your presents from Scotland?" he asked with a barely concealed grin, and I eagerly shook my head.

"Presents would be nice, thank you," Sam piped up, and at that moment the kitchen door opened and my Mother stepped through.

"No presents until Christmas! Thomas, for Merlin's sakes…" she cried, pulling Sam and I forward into a hug before stepping over to the table and laying a kiss on Toby's head. He swatted her away impatiently, his eyes never leaving the patient files he had been going over all day.

"How was Scotland?" I asked, and Dad nodded.

"Yeah, when I wasn't working it was excellent. Your mother and I had a fantastic time. We went on a boat ride to try and find Nessie!" he cried excitedly.

"Nessie?" I asked in confusion.

"…as in the Loch Ness Monster?" Toby sniggered from the table, and Dad nodded cheerily.

"Yes! That one!"

"And did you find Nessie?" Sam asked, and Dad frowned.

"Well, no, but we did see a suspiciously large, dark shape under the surface of the water and some bubbles trailing along behind it. So I really do think we came close to finding her!"

I raised my eyebrows. "Great, Dad," I said, trying not to laugh.

Mum appeared at Dad's side then, wrapping her arm around his waist. "It was a very enjoyable trip, though. We stayed at the most darling bed and breakfast at one point, with a beautiful view of the sun rising over the mountains every morning…"

"Yeah, and they provided breakfast every day," Dad chirped. "Speaking of food, I see you're busy baking… What have you got for me?"

Rolling my eyes fondly, I turned back to my little team of baking helpers. "We've just made some fudge and Ron's just finishing up the shortbread- but you can only have a bit. The rest is for Christmas."

"Is three days out from Christmas close enough?" Dad asked hopefully, and I shot him a mock glare.

"No, it isn't," I said flatly. But as it turns out, the next three days flew by in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, it was Christmas morning.

My Christmas wake up, however, was not the one I had expected.

'weeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The off-key, shouted song was accompanied by somebody throwing themselves onto my bed and beginning to jump up and down, jostling me so much that I only just stopped myself from falling flat onto the floor.

'JESUS CHRIST, SAM!'

Sam stopped his jumping to grin down at me, as I rubbed my eyes tiredly. Ginny and Hermione sat up, looking confused and still mostly asleep, until the door slammed open and all our gazes turned to see Toby standing in the doorway. For a moment we all stared at each other in silence… and then it began again.

'…goooooooooooOOOOOOD TIDINGS WE BRING TO YOU AND YOUR KIN!' Toby cried, running to join Sam in jumping up and down on my bed, this time successfully jostling me to the floor. 'GOOD TIDINGS FOR CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!'

'GOD DAMN IT, GUYS!' I screamed, swinging back up to my feet and glaring at them. They stopped jumping, looking startled. 'FOR GODS SAKES, HOW MANY YEARS IN A ROW DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU… that 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town' is the _best_ Christmas song by FAR!'

Toby laughed excitedly, extending a hand to pull me to stand up on the bed. 'RIGHT YOU ARE, BREE! HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING-'

'-AND HE KNOWS WHEN YOU'RE AWAKE-'

'-AND HE KNOWS IF YOU'VE BEEN BAD OR GOOD SO BE GOOD-'

'-FOR GOODNESS-'

'-SAKES! _HEY!_'

Ginny and Hermione groaned and flopped back onto their beds. 'Your family's cheer is incessant,' Ginny muttered, and I grinned and pointed at her.

'Hey! There's that Christmas spirit, Ginny!'

'Hermione, you take the next verse!' Sam cried, and Hermione looked startled.

'Oh! Um… er… he's making a list…?' she tried tentatively.

_'Yeah he is!_ And he's checkin' it twice!' Toby yelled.

'He's gonna find out whose naughty or nice!' I continued.

'CAUSE SANTA CLAUSE IS COMING TO TOWN!' Sam yelled. 'YEAH! CHRISTMAS!'

The twins appeared at the door then, rubbing their eyes tiredly. 'What's going on in here?' George yawned, his eyes widening when I threw myself off of the bed and into his arms. Barely catching me, he seemed to wake up at my ensuing giggles, his smile widening in response.

'IT'S CHRISTMAS, GEORGIE!'

'I take it you've opened your presents, then?'

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped.

'OH! PRESENTS!' Sam exclaimed, jumping from the bed and running out of the room and back to his own. A second later I heard him rousing his friends (Ron groaning loudly) and ushering them to bring their presents downstairs to open.

Half an hour later, everybody sat in the living room of Grimmauld Place still in our pajamas and most of the house's occupants still half asleep. Toby and I had taken it upon ourselves to wake up the adults, with me banging on Sirius's door singing 'God Bless Ye, Merry Hippogriff's' for, like, ten minutes before he answered the door. But eventually, coffee was made and the presents were all shifted to cover the floor of the living room and we all settled onto the floor and the armchairs to share our first real Christmas morning together as one big fat dysfunctional family. I was currently sitting cross legged at the base of the Christmas tree and eagerly ripping the wrapping paper off of my first present.

Mum laughed quietly into her coffee. "You never got any more mature with gift opening, did you?"

"WE AINT GOT TIME FOR MATURITY, MAMA!" Sam cried gleefully, ripping into his own gifts. "NOT WHEN THERE'S PRESENTS TO BE OPENED!"

My first present, however, was not exactly awe inspiring.

"Is this… a homework planner?" I asked in confusion, and Sam laughed loudly until he finished unwrapping his gift to find he'd received the same thing. Without even looking at the card, I said "Oh, how useful. Thank you, Hermione…"

She beamed at me. "It's great, isn't it? And when you open it up it tells you what you need to do with a little encouraging phrase!"

Experimentally flicking the book open to a random page, I winced when a tinny little voice called out "do it today or later you'll pay!"

Turns out we'd all received homework planners from Hermione since she apparently found our homework habits very poor. Thankfully, the Christmas haul significantly improved from this point. An excessive amount of makeup, new recipe books, all the candy you could imagine, and a beautiful charm bracelet from my family being my favorites. I'd been unable to mask my slight horror when I unwrapped a shirt with an animated Loch-Ness Monster on it with the words 'NESSIE #1' from Dad, which he'd seemed super excited about.

"I got us all matching Nessie shirts!" he cried excitedly, whilst Mum winced and mouthed "sorry" from behind his back.

Harry had received some fantastic books all about practicing defensive magic from Sirius and Remus which he excitedly flipped through with me and rambled about how excited he was to go through some of these with the DA. Sam had received a furry brown wallet with fangs from Hagrid; we supposed it was supposed to be anti-theft, but unfortunately the wallet tried to bite Sam every time he came near it. I'd boxed and wrapped the treats we'd made the other day and given them out, which Sirius and Remus were particularly excited about. Hermione had received a perfume from Ron that was really… distinct. It had me sneezing for the next hour. And then Harry unwrapped the best gift of all.

It was a painting that Dobby had painted himself. Ron laughed so hard he could barely draw breath for a solid five minutes.

"Oh, I think it's very thoughtful!" I defended.

"What the hell is that supposed to be? It looks like a gibbon with two eyes," Fred sniggered.

"No, it's Harry!" Sam said gleefully. "It says so on the back!"

"Good likeness," George grinned, as Harry turned it upside down to see if the smudge of colors made any more sense that way.

I'd reached my last gift and excitedly ripped into it to find a blue jumper with a yellow 'B' on the front. "Oh, Mrs Weasley!" I cried, picking up the jumper to observe it. I couldn't believe I'd made the cut for one of her jumpers. Shooting to my feet, I wrapped my arms around her in a hug. "Thankyou, I love it!"

"Oh, Bree, that's alright!" she laughed, patting my back. "Family get jumpers, that's how it goes."

I couldn't help the grin that split across my face at her words. It only widened when I saw that Sam and Toby had received jumpers too.

The front door opened from down the hall, and a moment later Bill appeared, his arms loaded up with parcels.

"Merry Christmas, everyone!" he cried, bending to kiss his Mother's cheek as we all chanted it back. "I stopped by the house for the mail- I think Murial's sent us all home-made jewelry again."

"I think I prefer the years where she doesn't get us anything," Fred muttered.

"I don't," George replied. "On those years, her rants about how disappointing we all are at least double in frequency."

And that was when Mrs Weasley burst into tears.

George looked horrified. "Oh, I didn't mean it, Mum! Murial's great! A real charmer!"

She shook her head, but couldn't get any words out. That's when I spotted the jumper in her lap with the large P on the front- Percy had sent back his jumper, apparently without a note.

"Oh, Mrs Weasley…" I said sympathetically.

That was when the rest of the Weasley's noticed the jumper. Ginny and Ron both flushed scarlet with anger, as the twins hurried forwards to comfort their mother.

Or at least attempt to.

"Mum, don't worry about Percy," Fred said soothingly. "He's just a huge pile of rat droppings anyway."

She just cried harder. Every single person in the room shot him a glare, and he winced.

"Very sensitive, Fred," Ginny snarled under her breath as Remus and Mom moved to comfort Mrs Weasley.

Dad cleared his throat and stood, shuffling towards us. "Might be best for everyone to skedaddle on upstairs for a little bit," he said, and I nodded, filing towards the exit with everyone else behind me.

We crept through the main room to ensure Mrs Black stayed quiet- but once we were all within the safe confines of the twins room, everyone rounded on Fred. Simultaneously, Ginny and I spun and slapped him on his arms.

'OW! WHAT THE FUCK!' he yelled, grabbing where we'd hit him and gaping at us.

'_He's just a huge pile of rat droppings,' _I quoted with a glare. 'Are you kidding me?!'

'Well, he fuckin' is!' Fred defended. 'He didn't even send a note back with the jumper!'

'He hasn't asked how Dad is at all,' Ron spoke up. 'Hasn't visited him or anything.'

'Oh, Fred, we all _know_ he's a huge pile of rat droppings-'

'-actually, he's a total asshole, but I thought I should PG my language down for Mum- OW!' another slap followed his mutterings.

I sighed loudly. 'You shouldn't talk about him like that in front of your Mom, that's what the point is. She's obviously really suffering over Percy's actions.'

'Things are hard right now, but once You-Know-Who is out in the open again, Percy will come around,' Sam spoke up. 'And he'll feel like a right idiot for ever doubting any of you.'

Fred flopped down on the bed, followed shortly by his twin. 'Yeah, well, he's gonna have to get down on his hands and knees and beg for my damn forgiveness' he muttered, and George nodded his agreement. I just sighed again, knowing that when Percy did eventually come around, they would welcome him with open arms. Because that's what family does.

It didn't take long for Toby to come upstairs and tell us that it was safe to return to the first floor, and everyone slowly filed out of the room and back down the stairs. I was about to follow when a hand grabbed my arm and stopped me, and I spun around to see George.

He looked nervous all of a sudden, and he eventually nodded down to the jumper Mrs Weasley had made me, which I still had clutched in one of my hands. He cleared his throat and said sheepishly, 'you don't have to wear it. I know that it's sorta lame.'

My gaze softened upon meeting his own shy one. I pushed his hand off of my arm gently and pulled the jumper over my head, grinning up at him once I was done. 'I love it,' I said simply. 'Means I don't have to steal yours anymore, right?'

George was gazing down at me with a gentle smile. 'Is that where my jumpers kept disappearing to?'

I hummed noncommittally before winking at him. 'Come on,' I laughed, taking his hand and pulling him downstairs to the kitchen, where everyone was sitting around the dining room table chatting.

'Fits perfectly, Mrs Weasley,' I said, hugging her quickly where she stood by the stove frying up eggs. She smiled in a watery sort of way and patted my cheek gently, before I joined the rest of the house occupants at the table. Mrs Weasley soon cheered up and the festive spirit returned in full force as we all ate Christmas lunch. Mundungus showed up just in time for Christmas pudding in the muggle car that would be taking us all to St. Mungo's to visit Mr Weasley, which I was very excited about. I missed that man. Also, I'd never seen where Toby worked before, and was quite looking forward to it.

We all hurriedly got dressed out of our pajamas (though I did keep the jumper on, and Sam donned his with a grin) and exited the house, waving to a dejected looking Sirius (though he was trying very hard to hide it). The car had been enlarged by magic to fit the lot of us in very comfortably on the relatively short ride to the hospital, and before I knew it we were all piling out onto an empty back street. Toby led the way up to a disused, dusty old store called Purge & Dowse, Ltd. I assumed it must have been a woman's department store at one point, because all of the chipped, miserable looking mannequins were wearing faded, long haired wigs and modelling fashions that were at least ten years out of date. There were a number of signs around the doors and windows reading 'Closed for Refurbishments.'

Wizards can be so indiscrete. It's a real wonder we've managed to keep ourselves hidden from muggles for so long.

Toby seemed nonplussed, waltzing right up to a dummy wearing a hideous green dress and leaning close to the window. 'It's Toby Montero here with the Weasley clan to visit Arthur,' he said very casually to the mannequin, who nodded before motioning him closer. Toby spun back to me with a grin before taking my hand and pulling me straight through the glass window. A sudden cold washed over me, gone before I'd even really noticed it, and suddenly I was standing in a gorgeously festive reception area. It was a white high-ceilinged room with rows upon rows of (currently mostly empty) wooden waiting chairs. There were beautiful snow-covered Christmas trees in every corner and baubles and tinsel hung from the ceiling.

A bored looking young witch sat at the reception desk flipping through a copy of Witch Weekly. However, she perked up significantly when she saw Toby and I approaching.

'Hello, Healer,' she called with a flirtatious wave, and I barely refrained from rolling my eyes. Sam, who had just appeared at my side, did not hide his disdain at our brothers continued flirty nature nearly as well as I did.

'Merry Christmas, Deborah,' Toby grinned at her, as my eyes slid to the wall behind the witch. It was covered in notices and posters saying things like 'ANTIDOTES ARE ANTI-DONTS UNLESS APPROVED BY A QUALIFIED HEALER' and 'A CLEAN CAULDRON KEEPS POTIONS FROM BECOMING POISONS' which I thought were rather helpful things to advertise. There was a large floor guide beside her desk which directed people where to go for whatever their injury was.

'Well, it certainly is now that you've decided to come visit,' she giggled. 'I thought that you had the day off today?'

'I do, this is a social visit,' Toby said. 'Here to see Arthur Weasley.'

'Yes, and we don't want to keep him waiting,' Sam added, giving Toby a shove away from the desk. 'Lovely to meet you Deborah! Must be off!'

Sam, Harry, and Ron sniggered to themselves as Toby shot Sam a glare. Sam merely rolled his eyes and shoved Toby to walk faster.

Mr Weasley was staying on the first floor in a small room with a singular, small window. When we entered, he was propped up against a stack of pillows in the bed right beside the window. He had the remains of his turkey lunch on his lap and looked rather sheepish as his eyes met our approaching group.

'Mr Weasley!' I cried jovially, wrapping my arms around him in a hug- though a very gentle one, and I stayed far away from his bandages. 'It's so good to see you!'

'And you as well! All of you!' he cried, pecking his wife on the cheek after I had pulled back.

'How are you, Dad?' George asked, and Mr Weasley nodded a little bit too enthusiastically.

'Fine! Yes, very fine! You haven't seen Healer Smethwyck though, have you?'

'No, why? Is something wrong?' Toby asked, stepping forwards and yanking Mr Weasley's chart from the end of the bed, his Healer attitude suddenly out in full force.

'Oh, no! No, Toby, everything's alright,' he assured my brother hurriedly, before turning to the gifts we'd piled on his bed. 'Have you all had a good day? What did you all get for Christmas? Oh, Harry- this is absolutely _wonderful!_' he exclaimed, having just opened Harry's gift to find a fuse-wire and some screwdrivers. God bless you, you crazy old man.

Mrs Weasley, however, did not seem as satisfied as Toby did with her husband's assurances. As he leant over to shake Harry's hand, she peered at his bandages under his nightshirt.

'Arthur,' she said sharply, 'you've had your bandages changed. Why have you had them changed a day early? Toby said they wouldn't need doing until tomorrow.'

He looked like he completely deflated at her words. 'Well, now- er- don't be upset Molly,' he interlude to a sentence that would undoubtedly upset her, 'but Augustus Pye had an idea- he's the trainee Healer, you know, lovely young chap, and he's very interested in… er… complementary medicine… I mean, some of these old muggle remedies… well, they're called _stitches,_ you see, and they work very well on- on Muggle wounds…'

Mrs Weasley let out an ominous noise somewhere between a shriek and a snarl. Toby groaned under his breath and shook his head. Remus hopped up and wandered over to the man lying in the bed closest to Mr Weasley (who had no visitors and was looking at all of us surrounding Mr Weasley rather wistfully), and Bill muttered something about getting himself a cup of tea. Eager to escape before Mrs Weasley learnt what stitches were, I jumped to my feet, as did almost everyone else.

'Do you mean to tell me,' Mrs Weasley began in a distinctly threatening tone, apparently totally unaware that we were all scurrying for cover from her wrath, 'that you have been messing about with muggle remedies?!'

'Not- not messing about, Molly, dear,' Mr Weasley implored weakly. 'It was just- just something that Pye and I thought we'd try- only, most unfortunately- well, with these particular kinds of wounds- it doesn't seem to have worked as well as we'd hoped…'

'_Meaning?!'_

'Well… well, I don't know whether you know what- what stitches are?'

'It sounds as though you've been trying to sew your skin back together,' said Mrs Weasley with a snort of mirthless laughter, 'but even you, Arthur, wouldn't be _that_ stupid-'

'I fancy a cup of tea,' Bill said, jumping to his feet, and we all hurried as quickly as possible to the door without all out running. We'd only just exited and the door was swinging closed behind us when we heard Mrs Weasley shriek 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN, _THAT'S THE GENERAL IDEA?_!'

'Typical Dad,' Ginny shook her head, 'Stitches… I ask you…'

'God, that trainee Healer is the bane of my existence,' Toby groaned. 'Thinks he has all these brand spankin' new revolutionary ideas.'

'To be fair, they do work well on non-magical wounds,' Hermione spoke up.

'Oh, I'm not questioning muggle medical practices- in fact, I think our hospital would really benefit from using some of them- but putting stitches in a man with a bite from that sort of snake? Any idiot could have told Pye the venom would have dissolved them,' he rambled, taking a sudden turn down a new corridor.

'Where's the tea room, Toby?' Bill asked, and Toby nodded in the direction we were heading.

'Fifth floor- just have to head up the staircase up ahead. Don't talk to the people in the portraits, they'll keep you there rambling for bloody hours about their medical field,' he advised, rolling his eyes. 'And if we escape there without them diagnosing at least one of us with some kind of weird medical problem, it'll be a damn miracle.'

Turns out Toby was not at all exaggerating. The walls of the stairwell were lined with portraits of Healers who had made exceptional leeway in the knowledge of their medical field- and who, apparently, had never seen ginger's before.

'You clearly have a bad case of spattergroit,' one elderly man called out to Ron, who looked seriously affronted. 'A most grievous affliction of the skin, young master… that will leave you pockmarked and more gruesome even than you are now…'

'Oi!' Ron raged, his ears turning red. 'Watch who you're calling gruesome!'

'-the only remedy is to take the liver of a toad, bind it tight about your throat, stand naked at the full moon in a barrel of eels eyes-'

'I HAVE NOT GOT SPATTERGROIT!'

'Ron,' Toby groaned. '_Please_ don't encourage them.'

'Spattergroit has clearly caused the unsightly blemishes upon your visage, young master-'

'THEY'RE FRECKLES! Now get back in your own bloody portrait and stop following me!' Ron cried, stomping to the closest door and exiting the stairwell.

We all filed out behind him, the twins sniggering to themselves.

'You had _one job,_ Ron,' Toby said in exasperation. 'Do not speak to the portraits. They're honestly the _worst_.'

'Aw, I don't know,' Bill grinned. 'He just seemed like he was trying to help, Ron-'

Ron's ears flushed a darker shade of red as he made a rather rude hand gesture at his brother.

'What floor is this?' Sam interrupted. 'Is it the fifth?'

'Nah, fourth,' Toby answered. 'Spell damage ward- one more to go, just- _oh!'_

Toby's eyes widened as his gaze fell behind us, and we all turned to see what had surprised him. My jaw dropped open at what I saw.

There was a man peering out at us with his nose pressed against a glass window beside the sign reading 'SPELL DAMAGE.' He had wavy blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and the broadest grin I'd ever seen. I would recognize this man anywhere.

'GILDEROY LOCKHART!' I shrieked.

At my yell, he pushed the door open and waltzed out to greet us, his long lilac dressing grown trailing behind him.

'Well, hello there!' he greeted jovially. 'Expect you'd like my autograph, would you?'

I was literally speechless. My mouth gaped open as I stared at him, star struck.

'Er- how are you, Professor?' Ron asked.

'I'm very well indeed, thank you!' he cried exuberantly as he pulled a peacock feathered quill from his pocket. 'Now, how many autographs would you like?'

'Um, we don't want any at the moment, thanks- OOF! OW!'

I very nearly smacked Ron in the face as my arms flew out wildly to push him away. 'Speak for your goddamn self!' I cried. 'I would _love_ an autograph! And so would my brother-'

'Yes, I would,' Toby cried, jumping forwards. 'We are _huge_ fans, Mr Lockhart-'

'_Huge fans,'_ I nodded.

'Oh, are you now? Well, I don't wonder why,' he laughed jovially, flashing his stunningly white teeth. 'How about we say around a dozen, and you can hand them out to your little friends and then nobody will be left out!'

Toby and I continued nodding excitedly, and from the corner of my eye I saw Sam roll his eyes.

Before he could begin his autographs, an elderly witch poked her head out from the doors he'd emerged from. 'Oh, _there_ you are Gilderoy! And look, you have visitors! Oh, how lovely, and on Christmas Day, too!'

'We're doing autographs!' Lockhart told the Healer with another wide grin. 'They want loads of them! Won't take no for an answer! I just hope we've got enough photographs!'

'Oh, listen to him,' the Healer said fondly. 'He was rather well known a few years ago; we very much hope that this liking for giving autographs is a sign of his memory coming back-'

And that was when I realized- the Healer trailing after him, his robe, the sort of vague look in his eyes… Gilderoy Lockhart was a patient in the Spell Damage Ward.

'Oh, no,' I lamented. 'What happened to him? How did he lose his memory?'

Ron cleared his throat loudly from beside me, but I paid him no mind. The Healer sighed. 'A backfiring spell,' she said sympathetically. 'Poor thing. Will you step this way? He's in a closed ward, you know. He must have slipped out whilst I was bringing the Christmas presents in, the door's usually kept locked. It is nice of you to have come to see him!'

'Er, actually, we were just-' Once again, I elbowed Ron out of the way.

'Of course!' I cried jovially, and she smiled widely before leading Lockhart through the doors. Once she was gone, Sam groaned loudly.

'Oh, come _on,_ Bree-' I reeled around and grabbed his collar, dragging him close to meet his gaze forcefully.

'Do not blow this for me, you pain in the ass,' I growled. 'Now we are gonna go in there and see the greatest author that has ever lived, and you lot are gonna be _damn fucking jovial about it!'_

With that, I spun and followed the Healer, Toby hot on my heels and the others trailing behind us rather slowly ('she's bloody scary sometimes,' I heard George mutter, but ignored him). We entered to find that she had settled Lockhart in a plush looking armchair by the window.

'This is our long-term residents ward,' she informed us in a low voice. 'For permanent spell damage, you know. Of course, with intensive remedial potions and charms and a bit of luck, we can produce some improvement.'

This ward bore unmistakable marks of being a permanent home to the residents, with many more personal affects littering the area than a temporary resident like Mr Weasley had. The walls around Lockharts bed were all papered with pictures of himself, all of them grinning and waving at us. Toby returned the gesture enthusiastically.

Lockhart had already pulled a fresh stack of photographs towards him and was beginning to sign them all enthusiastically.

'You can put them in envelopes,' he said to Ginny, throwing signed photographs in her lap as he finished them. 'I am not forgotten, you know, I still receive a great deal of fan mail. Gladys Gudgeon writes _weekly!_ I just wish I knew why…' he paused slightly, and my heart sunk slightly at his sad words. He perked back up in a second though. 'I suspect it is simply my good looks!'

I couldn't help but giggle as I moved to take the photographs from Ginny's lap to put in the envelopes beside her. The Healer moved away from us then, saying something to a man named Broderick about how he'd received a lovely pot-plant for Christmas. Honestly, everything was a blur except for the fact that Gilderoy bloody Lockhart was within my presence.

Eventually, after not nearly enough time in my opinion, we had to leave him. We'd need to return to Grimmauld Place soon enough. Lockhart enthusiastically waved us off, and Toby and I returned the wave so excitedly we nearly dropped the signed photographs weighing down our arms.

As soon as we were out of his presence, I spun around to the rest of the group and squealed loudly, practically jumping up and down.

"GILDEROY LOCKHART! WE JUST MET GILDEROY LOCKHART!"

"Oh my God, he was literally so much more than I ever dreamed," Toby cried, the biggest grin I'd ever seen on his face. "He was so inspiring. But what a complete tragedy… a backfiring spell… oh, the poor man…"

Ron coughed violently, and we both turned to him in concern. "Woah, you sure you don't have Spattergroit, Ronald? You sound gross as hell," I commented, and he flushed.

"Let's just go," he muttered, turning back towards the staircase.

Shrugging, I trailed behind him, careful not to drop any of my photographs. "Guess that explains why he hasn't written a book in so long," I sighed dejectedly.

Toby gasped. "Oh my God! What if he lost his memory before he saved his lover from the coven of vampires?! _What if she's still there?!"_

This thought would bother me for months to come.

* * *

><p>The days disappeared at a ridiculous pace after Christmas was over. The Christmas decorations came down, and Arthur finally left the hospital. Apart from that, we all tried to muster the usual enthusiasm going back to school brought us, but we were failing miserably. With Umbridge running the place into the ground and the NEWT's creeping up on us… well, there was pretty much no bright side to returning to Hogwarts at this point.<p>

"Well frankly I'm looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet," Toby piped up cheerily during one of our lazier days. My brothers and I were sitting around the kitchen table, Sam and I trying to complete the homework we'd left until the last minute. "You lot are annoying. I get so much more done without you around."

"Yeah?" Sam asked sarcastically, his eyes not leaving the textbook propped up in front of him. "That why you haven't been to work in two weeks?"

"I'm taking a mental health holiday," Toby commented, idly flipping a page in the book he was reading. "Let me tell ya, that place can really drain you. A woman vomited on my feet the other week. Like, what the fuck?"

"What?! What was the doing in the hospital?! It's not like you're paid to deal with sick people or anything!" Sam cried in fake outrage, but Toby didn't seem to pick up on it.

"I know, right? So rude. It's like, aim slightly to the left. So gross."

"If you two are gonna talk can you at least say something useful occasionally?" I groaned, looking up from my potions essay. "Toby, what's a use for asphodel? I've got the Drought of Living Death, but I know there's another major one."

"Wiggenweld Potion," he replied lazily, and I groaned loudly.

"I _knew _it had a weird name!" I cried. "What's it do? It heals, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it can also wake someone up from a magically induced sleep. Fun fact: that was what Prince Phillip used to wake up Princess Aurora. Ya know, before the Muggle's butchered the story. Throw that in, Professor's love it."

"Snape is our teacher," I reminded him, and Toby frowned.

"Ah. Don't bother then. He doesn't like anything," he said, flopping back lazily in his chair and picking his book back up. At that moment, the door to the kitchen opened, and Dad entered.

"MAIL TIME!" he sang as he entered the kitchen, coming over to us. "One for you, Bree… one for you, Sam… oooooh, Toby! Three for you! Aren't you popular!" he said, handing the letters out. Toby rolled his eyes, but I had stopped paying attention by that point.

"IT'S FROM CALLIE!" I screeched.

"IT'S FROM HANNAH!" Sam cried in much the same tone, as we both excitedly ripped into our envelopes.

"Mine's from the hospital. What the fuck? How boring," Toby muttered, throwing the letters to the side and picking his book back up. "No thanks."

Ignoring him, Sam grinned widely. "Oh, Hannah is so lovely. She said that she had a fantastic time on our date the other week. That's a good sign, right? Bree? Hey, Bree? You in there, Breezy?"

Truthfully, I barely heard my brother calling me. Usually I'd be all over his love life, but what I'd found in my letter had shocked me to my very core.

_Bree,_

_I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written, but all of our letters are being intercepted at the school. Things are really bad here- almost half of the staff have been replaced with some really shady characters. We're not just learning the theories behind dark magic anymore; we're actually performing it. James flat out refused to perform the cruciatus curse on a second year student, so the teacher did it to him. She said it was a 'good demonstration,' and then thanked him for volunteering. _

_Zira is acting crazier than she ever has before. The other night I overheard her and one of the new teachers talking about Karkaroff, they said that they were 'hunting him down for his betrayal.' Then they said that the Dark Lord can't come to America yet, because he still has things to deal with in Europe. She's a Death Eater, Bree, they all are, and they're trying to turn us into their new recruits after what happened in the third task. I'm scared, Bree, I'm so scared and I don't know what to do. Please don't reply to this, by the time you do I'll be back at school and she'll read it. _

_I love you; we'll write again when it's safe. _

_-Cal_

"Bree? Hey, Bree!"

I looked up, and only realized as I did that there were tears in my eyes. Toby was kneeling beside me, looking afraid. "Bree, what is it? What's wrong?"

I didn't say a word; I just held the letter out, and he took it. Sam and Dad leant over his shoulders to read along with him, and I knew the moment they'd finished.

Toby slammed his fist down on the table. "Damn it!" he cursed. "I can't believe this!"

"We always knew Zira was shady, but I never thought that she was…" Sam trailed off, but he didn't need to finish. We all knew.

"I need to call an Order meeting," Dad finally spoke up, his eyes still on the letter he'd just picked up. "We feared that his influence would spread to other countries, but we didn't think that it would happen to soon."

"We're going to have to go to America- help Aunt Sasha find more potential Order members," Toby said, and Dad nodded.

"Yes, we'll have to be more proactive. Thankfully we already have a place to start- I can think off the top of my head some people who won't hesitate to join the fight."

I listened, but I couldn't speak. The idea of my friends in that sort of environment- of friendly, unassuming James having the cruciatus curse put on him- it made me feel physically unwell.

Toby seemed to read my thoughts. As Dad left the kitchen to send out word for an emergency Order meeting, he dropped back to his knees beside me and took my shoulders in his hands.

"Bree, they're going to be alright," he said firmly. "I know your friends, yeah? They're strong; some of the strongest people I've ever met. This is not going to break them."

I looked up and met his gaze, seeing how confident he was in his words.

"They're all smart, Bree. And Zira can't do any worse to them; not yet, whilst You-Know-Who is still staying under the radar," Sam said, his hand coming up to rub my back.

Toby nodded slowly. "Things are tough right now, but they'll get better. They have to."

Again, I didn't speak. Instead, I wrapped my arms around Toby's shoulders and curled up against his chest, feeling Sam wrap his arms around my back a second later. I didn't speak, because I knew that things would get better. But I also knew that they would get a hell of a lot worse before that point.


	27. 101 Ways to Use Breakfast Foods

The holidays passed at an alarming rate after that point, and before I knew it, the day to return to Hogwarts was upon us. Mad-Eye Moody arrived early to oversee our preparations to get to the station sans Death Eater attack, and generally continued to work himself to an early death by getting far too worked up over absolutely every single detail of the morning. As per usual, he spent his time barking out orders and occasionally grunting to himself about "vigilance" and "dark forces" or some other shit. Who even really knows with this guy anymore?

Anyway, as per usual I spent my morning helping Sam pack because he'd left it until the last moment. Then, we all began our attempts to get our luggage down the flights of stairs into the entryway, preferably without knocking anybody down them this time. We were mostly successful until Fred tripped over his own trunk and tumbled down the last ten stairs, but everybody mostly just ignored him and continued about their business.

"Right, are we all ready to head off?" Mrs Weasley asked, stepping over Fred without sparing a glance at him.

Fred shot his mother a glare as we all nodded our assent. "Yes, I'm fine, Mother, thank you for caring enough to ask!" he called grumpily, allowing his twin to pull him back to his feet and grumbling to himself when he was still ignored.

We left for the station soon after, but not before Sirius pulled me into a bear hug to say goodbye.

"Stay out of trouble," he said once he pulled back, and I grinned.

"Maybe I should be the one telling you that," I replied, but his returning smile was more bitter than amused as he gestured around us.

"Don't worry, I'm under house arrest, remember?" he relied sarcastically, and my smile slowly fell.

"It's only temporary- remember that," I begged quietly. "Soon, everyone will know you're innocent, and you can go anywhere you want. But until then, go outside as a dog sometimes. Don't wander too far obviously, but just… get some air, Sirius."

And I hoped he would. Sometimes I feared that Grimmauld Place might have been worse than Azkaban for Sirius. Staying locked up in here wasn't good for him.

He smiled down at me again, more genuinely this time, before pulling me back into another hug. He didn't say anything, but it was enough.

We apparated to the train station soon after that, and in no time I was hugging my parents (and the Weasley parents) goodbye before beginning the trek towards the train.

"BYE GUYS!" Toby called gaily, waving overenthusiastically. "Bye! I'll miss yoooooouuuuu! Have a good term! Don't forget to write! Do your homework! Don't blow anything up! Don't do anything that warrants a letter being sent home questioning whether you were raised by apes again!"

"THAT WAS ONE TIME!" Sam yelled. "IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! And that letter home from Snape was completely unwarranted, he _knew_ it was an accident!"

Toby sniggered. "Whatever you say, Sammy, just stop blowing things up in his classes. Have a good term, kiddos."

Rolling my eyes, I yanked Sam away before he could get into an all-out fight with Toby like he so clearly was gearing up to do. "Love ya, Tobes!" I called simply, before he disappeared from my sight.

The crowd of students and their family members was thick and bustling, and within approximately six seconds of trying to push my way towards the train, someone rather large barged straight into me and sent me flying to the ground with a surprised squeak, not seeming to notice my short stature in their way at all. A second later, someone gripped me underneath my arms and pulled me back to my feet.

"Merlin, Bree," George laughed, "You're so short that simply _walking_ is a safety hazard."

I rolled my eyes, but didn't object when he threaded his fingers through mine and pulled me close to his side. I merely rolled my eyes, but still burrowed closer to him as we continued making our way through the throng of people.

"Hey! Short stuff!"

Just as we reached the doors to the train, I turned at the familiar call, only to nearly be knocked off my feet (again) as a large mass crashed into me in a hug so enthusiastic all the air was knocked out of my body.

"Lee!" I laughed, hugging him back. However, when he eventually stepped back from me, my enthusiasm turned into shock. "LEE, HOLY SHIT!"

Lee Jordan was, for lack of a better word… fucking _massive._ Still shorter than the twins, he was noticeably more wide and stocky. The dude was _built_. And he clearly knew it.

He grinned down at me before reaching up and flexing his arms. "Admiring the guns?"

Lee had always been large, there was no denying that, and the majority of my shock probably just came from not seeing him in so many weeks. But god, he must have spent nearly every day in the gym these holidays.

"For fucks sakes, Lee, are you talking about the guns again?"

Turning, I saw Katie, Alicia and Angelina behind us, all eyeing Lee off.

"You mention the guns again, you're getting smacked," Angelina promised, turning to roll her eyes at the twins and I. "All bloody day…"

"Ladies please, I can't help my fantastic physique. I know that it's distracting- people just can't keep their eyes off such a perfect example of male- OW!" Lee shrieked as Angelina smacked him upside the head, before turning back to us.

"Trains filling up babes, let's find a compartment before we're stuck riding along with the luggage."

We followed her onto the train, and despite still having fifteen minutes until the train left, struggled to find an empty compartment. Eventually we came across one closer to the back of the train and settled in for the long ride to school. Lee threw all of our bags in the overhead compartment, and I flopped down beside George, already exhausted from lugging that thing around. George grinned down at me and threaded his arm over my shoulders, pulling me closer to his side, where I went with no complaints. Despite being thin and lanky, the dude was by far the most comfortable thing I'd ever found to lay against.

"So," Alicia began with a wide grin. "Another school term begins. We're getting closer to the end."

"Oh, Jesus Christ, don't even _remind _me," Lee groaned. "Mum's decided I'm going to work for the Ministry."

"Dad's decided I'm going to go into taxation," Angelina said with a disgusted look. "Didn't have the heart to tell him I'm spending my days writing porn instead."

I winced. "Guess it's time to really start looking at those job pamphlets…"

George snorted. "I think we were supposed to look at them back in fifth year- only a bit late."

Katie shrugged. "I kinda just assumed my perfect job would be presented to me on a silver platter," she said honestly. "Anyway, you don't have to decide just yet- just get through these last few months first!"

"Yes, I imagine that the workload isn't going to be light," Alicia nodded, and Angelina scoffed.

"Who gives a shit about school work? That's not what I'm here for. Breezy, you get me, right- I'm assuming you'll be spending the next few months making me proud by ignoring all your responsibilities in favor of continuing to kiss an attractive blonde by the name of Jason Dawes?"

Before I could reply, Fred began choking on the water he'd been drinking and George snatched his arm from around my shoulders as though it'd been burnt. "You _kissed_ him?!" he cried, his gaze turning to one of absolute horror.

I flushed at the sudden attention of everyone in the compartment. "I, er… well, yes, I did," I stuttered out. Truthfully… I had barely spared a single thought for Jason since I had last seen him- not even about the kiss we shared. But just because it had been a good kiss… did that mean that I wanted to kiss him again? At this point, I had no idea what I wanted.

My eyes drifted up to meet George's- only to find that he wasn't looking at me at all. His gaze was set firmly outside the window on the passing scenery, his posture as stiff as a board. I cleared my throat, but he did not turn away from the window.

"I'm not quite sure where it's going," I said honestly. "We haven't spoken."

"I can't believe that stupid blonde prick made a move on you," Fred gritted out furiously.

"Well, Bree's a hot bitch," Lee said. "It was only a matter of time before someone like Jason tried to snatch her up. In fact, I would say that this was 100% predictable and that if anyone else has a thing for her they should probably do something about it. Like, now."

My gaze slid to Lee in confusion. "…What?"

"Oh, nothing," he sang. "Moving on…"

And thankfully for me, the conversation flowed onto a new topic then. One I eagerly participated in, in order to keep the conversation off of me.

In fact, one I participated in so eagerly that it kept me from noticing that George didn't say a single word for the remainder of the train ride.

We arrived at Hogwarts soon after, and lost the boys in the hustle and bustle of all the students filing onto the platform and up to the school. "Ugh," Angelina grunted as someone knocked into her. "Too many fuckin' magical kids in Britain. How do we even store this many kids in the castle?"

"Magic?" Alicia suggested, but Angelina cheerfully ignored her as we made it into the Entrance Hall. However, I only made it a few paces before I was halted by an arm threading around my waist from behind me, spinning me around so quickly I stumbled. I didn't even have time to look up before a set of lips descended onto my own.

Squeaking in surprise, I clutched the mystery man's shoulders to stop myself from tumbling to the floor, the hands on my waist tightening to keep me mostly upright. A second later, they pulled away, and I saw none other than Jason Dawes grinning down at me.

"Jason-" I gasped, still stunned, and he grinned down at me widely.

"Hello, love. Merlin, I've missed you," he said, before pressing his lips back to mine. I moaned quietly, threading my hands up through his hair, but judging by his smirk against my lips he heard it loud and clear.

"AHEM. MISS MONTERO. MISTER DAWES."

Pulling back hurriedly, I pushed Jason until I was a safe distance away from him. The boy was like a safety hazard- being too close to him left me stunned. It was only once I blinked a few times to regain my bearings that I saw who had been the one to interrupt us.

"Oh- er, hello, Professor McGonagall," Jason said nervously. "Did you have a good holiday?"

McGonagall did not look amused in the slightest.

"It wasn't nearly long enough," she said flatly. "Please refrain from expressing such wanton behavior in the Entrance Hall."

I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Er, yes, of course, sorry Professor."

She nodded towards the Great Hall. "The Feast is about to begin- please make your way to the Hufflepuff table, Mr Dawes."

Jason nodded, but brought my hand up to his lips with a wink before following her instructions. I flushed again, which McGonagall certainly picked up on.

"You too, Miss Montero," she said, slightly less harshly, before turning to head into the Hall. I couldn't help the giggle that escaped me as soon as her back was turned, especially when Katie nudged my hip with a loud laugh.

"Breezy, please! You're killing us!" Angelina cried, as Alicia ushered us towards the Great Hall. I spotted the twins on the other side of the Hall- Lee shot me a thumbs up and a wide grin, but Fred and George kept their gazes straight ahead, both looking less than pleased. I began to make my way over to them, but another swarm of students entering the school doors cut me off, and I lost them to the crowd. Angelina was still chattering away beside me about how Jason's body was a gift from God himself, and that topic of conversation ensured that I very quickly forgot about the boys.

Cause damn, she was right.

* * *

><p>The next morning dawned too bright, bringing with it the first day of classes for a new semester. It also dawned too damn fuckin early after a lovely holiday of rolling out of bed whenever it suited me.<p>

I was still grumbling about this all through breakfast, even as Alicia chattered about how excited she was to get into Herbology and start learning again, Katie arranged her breakfast into a rather artful diorama, and Angelina made notes in her diary about her latest ideas for her sex book (Lee leaning over her shoulder and reading eagerly).

"Oh, what an absolutely atrocious day," Katie groaned, after she finished her diorama and looked at her timetable. "Double Snape, double Umbridge, and Trelawney to finish off. Oh, my God…"

"Ah, that's nasty, Bell," Fred winced sympathetically. "You can have some cheap Nosebleed Nougat if you like."

"Why is it cheap?" Angelina piped up suspiciously.

"Well, because you'll keep bleeding until you shrivel up," George said.

"Yeah, we haven't perfected the antidote yet," Fred nodded.

Alicia made a face. "Wow, thanks boys, that's real generous of you, but I think I'll take Snape and Umbridge."

Fred shrugged, taking another bite of his eggs. "Your choice."

At that moment, the warning bell rang, and George hoisted himself to his feet. "Should probably start walking if I want to get to Charms on time," he said, tugging his bag up onto his shoulder.

I put down my knife and fork and made to stand up too. "Cool; I'm heading up that way, I'll walk with you."

"It's fine, I know how to get there," he snapped, before turning and stalking out of the Hall. My eyes widened as I stared after him in surprise, flopping back down onto my seat.

"Did he seem a bit… snappish?" I asked, and everybody remained silent. I ran over the past day in my head, not picking up on anything out of the ordinary that would've made impacted his mood. In fact, he had seemed fine throughout the morning until I'd spoken to him just now. "Is something wrong…?"

A clanging caught my attention, and I turned to see that Fred had thrown his fork down. "I've never met two more maddeningly thickheaded people in all my life!" he snapped furiously, jumping to his feet and storming out of the Hall after his brother.

I stared after the second Weasley boy, my mouth agape. And I was totally and completely lost for words.

The second bell rang, and Alicia sighed. "Come on, Breezy," she said quietly. "We should get to class."

Transfiguration passed very, very slowly. I was so distracted worrying about George that I was the only person to fail to turn my tadpole into a toad. McGonagall assigned me extra homework, and I accepted it without complaint, just wanting to get out of this class and to my next one as quickly as possible so I could talk to George. Alicia didn't question the speed with which I hurried to our next class- until I stopped dead in the doorway and she ran right into me.

George was sitting in the middle of the room next to a dark haired Ravenclaw girl. I glanced back at Alicia in confusion- George and I always sat together in Charms, helping each other out. Biting my lip hesitantly, I followed Alicia over to where Angelina sat, also eyeing George's new seating arrangement.

I lowered myself into the seat beside Angelina as Flitwick stood up to begin the lesson- but I couldn't keep my mind on what he was saying. The only thing I could focus on was that George didn't so much as glance at me.

"Is he mad at me for something?" I asked quietly, and Angelina and Alicia both just shrugged.

Flitwick ordered us to read a chapter in our books, and then begin work on a new spell to fill our two hour lesson. I barely made it through the reading- I couldn't seem to drag my gaze away from the pretty Ravenclaw girl clearly making eyes at George, as he returned the gesture. And still, his gaze did not stray to me once.

"Do you know who that girl is?" I whispered to Alicia, who gave me a look I couldn't quite read.

"Yes," she replied quietly, as Flitwick moved past us, eyeing off my lack of progress disapprovingly. "That's Sasha Berkley… she's been crushing on George pretty much since our first year here."

I swallowed thickly, and nodded. Well, that's fine. It's not like I couldn't understand why she liked him so much. And she was very pretty- she was probably a damn wonderful person. George really deserved someone wonderful.

But I couldn't for the life of me work out why the whole thing left me feeling like somebody had punched a hole straight through my chest.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the class, I was on my feet not even a second later. The Weasley twins were always the first ones out the classroom doors, so despite my readiness I still had to practically run down the corridor to catch up with his long strides.

"George! _George!_ Wait up!" I called, finally reaching him and gripping his elbow, pulling him to a stop. When he looked down at me, it looked like it took him a great effort- and my words died in my throat, the strong scolding I had ready wilting back to a total loss for what to say. "Are… are you mad at me for something?" I finally asked, my voice far weaker than I'd intended. "Have I done something to upset you? Because if I have, I- I'm sorry, but I don't know what it is."

His gaze softened as it met my own. "Bree… I just… you haven't…" and then his gaze raised to something above my head, and as I watched he put that wall right back up. "I have to go," he muttered, before striding away from me. And I was left staring after him, totally lost for words.

I was only standing there a moment before an arm wound around my waist, a body pressing to my side. Looking up, I saw Jason watching George's retreating figure with a smirk. And then it clicked- when George found out that I'd kissed Jason… that was the last time he'd spoken to me.

This wasn't about me. This was about the blonde boy standing at my side.

* * *

><p>George maintained his silence towards me all throughout dinner. Fred, too, seemed to be in a rather unhappy mood, constantly shooting glares at both me and his brother. Eventually, their attitude irritated me enough that I picked my plate up and stormed down the Hall to sit with my brother and his friends, who all looked up in confusion at my arrival- except Hermione. She actually looked rather understanding.<p>

"Sup?" Ron asked cautiously, wincing as I viciously stabbed my fork into the chicken on my plate.

"Your brother is a dick," I snapped.

He snorted. "True." He paused. "Wait, which one?"

I didn't answer- I just continued to aggressively eat my chicken.

"Yeah, right, you might want to slow it down a bit, Bree. The animal's already dead," Sam said, gently prying my knife out of my hands. "Why don't you tone it back- try some ice cream."

I did as he said, snatching the whole platter of ice cream towards me and digging my spoon in angrily. Sam winced again, muttering that that wasn't what he had in mind. Ron hesitantly resumed the conversation they'd been having before I arrived, until eventually I interrupted him with a loud exclamation of "He doesn't even have a right to be angry!"

"Whelp, there it is," Sam muttered quietly, but I ignored him.

"It's like, what? What the hell is the issue? So a boy likes me? What, is that so unexpected? Like I'm totally undesirable?"

"I feel almost 100% sure that that's not the issue here," Sam said flatly.

"Then what?! Is it Jason?! What's his problem with him?!"

"Well, Bree… why don't you go and ask George what his problem is?" Hermione suggested. "Talking it out is the only way you're going to overcome this, you know."

I frowned, slouching further down in my seat and stabbing at my ice cream again.

That was when I noticed that Harry looked just as down as I felt. "What then, you having romance problems too?" I asked, and he frowned.

"Dumbledore wants me to learn Occlumency and my first lesson is tonight with Snape," he muttered, and I merely stared at him.

"Is that meant to mean something to me? Am I supposed to already know what Occlumency is?"

"It's the magical defense of the mind against external penetration," Hermione immediately explained. "Snape will be teaching him to defend his mind against Voldemort."

My eyebrows shot up, and my boy problems immediately fell to the wayside. "Well, what's the problem? That's a good thing! You don't want him in your head, do you? You can stop the nightmares," I said, thinking back to Harry's vision of You-Know-Who's snake attacking Mr Weasley with a slight shudder.

"But extra lessons with Snape? I'd rather have the bloody nightmares," Ron breathed out.

"Don't say that, you idiot," Sam said. "Voldemort needs to be as far out of Harry's head as possible. We all know having him there isn't a good thing."

"I suppose I know where the hesitation lies," I admitted. "Snape's never exactly been the most patient of teachers- and I believe I'm right in assuming that Occlumency is a difficult form of magic?"

"You'd be right," Harry said grimly. "Why couldn't Dumbledore teach me?"

Sam shrugged. "Maybe Snape's better at Occlumency than Dumbledore. Maybe he has more important things to do."

I took a more timid bite of my ice cream, tilting my head curiously. "But… what could be more important than You-Know-Who?"

* * *

><p><strong>George's POV<strong>

The following few days seemed to drag on without Bree around. I didn't like being without her; it felt wrong, somehow. There were many times that I almost forgot why I was staying away from her, where I would seek her out in order to apologize. And then I would see her with Jason Dawes's arm around her, or with his lips on hers, and that nasty feeling deep in my belly would rear right up again.

I must've been a nightmare to be around- because it didn't take my brother very long to say something.

The common room was empty at midday during my free period the first Wednesday back at school, and I was using that to my advantage to work on the Charms homework Flitwick had assigned the previous term. I was sitting on the couch in front of the fire reading up on the usefulness of the Imperturbable Charm (which I knew all too bloody well about after Mum's use of it on us), when midsentence, the book was snatched out of my lap.

"Oi!" I yelled, turning to glare up at where Fred stood with my textbook under his arm.

"Oi yourself," he snapped back. "We need to talk."

"I'm busy," I replied grumpily, and he rolled his eyes.

"Bullshit you are."

Fred sat down on the table in front of me, his gaze holding mine forcefully. "You're mad at her," he said simply, and I shook my head, leaning forward to snatch my book back from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said flatly, lowering my gaze, but he held the book once again out of my reach and lowered his head to force my gaze back to his, speaking louder as though I had never said anything.

"You're mad at her! You're mad because she's starting up a relationship with Jason Dawes, am I right?"

I frowned, but didn't say a word. I didn't need to.

Fred's tone was significantly softer when he spoke again. "You're mad at her for starting up a relationship with someone who isn't you- but she never even knew that you were an option."

"It's not like that!" I burst out. "It's not that _simple_!"

"Er, it is _completely _that simple!" Fred said firmly. "George, she has no idea why you're so angry at her, and it's really impacting her. She's just lost without you- _because she feels the same way you do!_"

"Don't say that," I snapped harshly. "_Don't_ say that, because it's not true."

Something in my tone must have made it clear that this wasn't a safe topic, because Fred fell silent. He slouched back, staring at me sadly.

For a moment, we sat in silence, my gaze on the fire licking the wood in the fireplace, and his gaze practically burning a hole in my side. "If you don't act soon, you're going to miss your chance," he said quietly. "Don't… _do this_, George, I'm begging you. That girl was bloody made for you, and you're going to let her slip through your fingers because you're too afraid to tell her how you feel."

My gaze didn't leave the fireplace, even as my brother stood up and walked towards the exit. "You can't be mad at her for choosing Jason when she never even knew that you were an option. Because if she knew, she'd be choosing differently."

He left me then, and I was glad. I swallowed thickly before rubbing my eyes, clearing the sudden haze I saw. It wasn't that simple- it wasn't. Fred was wrong… he was wrong about everything.

I wasn't mad at her. I could never, ever, in a million years be angry with my Bree. It wasn't _anger_ that crushed me every time I saw her and that blonde idiot together- it was _hurt._ It was a physical pain, throughout my whole damn body.

I felt like I was breaking into tiny little pieces, because what Fred had said was not true. What Fred and Lee and Angelina had always said could not possibly be true. Bree didn't feel the same way for me that I felt for her- and she never would. And that knowledge hurt more than anything else ever could.

* * *

><p><strong>Bree's POV<strong>

The following few days seemed to drag on without George around. I did not like being without him; it felt wrong, somehow. Honestly, I was an idiot for not realizing how much I leant on him until this point.

He continued not speaking to me, and in return I did the same.

It wasn't even nearly as simple as that statement made it sound.

He continued sitting with the Ravenclaw girl in our classes together, and my concentration levels continued slipping. My teachers forgave me- all but one, of course. Umbridge was less than thrilled about my lack of attention in her class, but what was the old hag really going to do? She didn't have time to ladle out punishments to slacking students, she was too busy continuing her evaluation of the school, concentrating on ladling out punishments to slacking teachers.

And slowly but steadily, that hole in my chest seemed to increase in size. I missed him- but I knew this would never resolve itself without some prompting. So I took Sam's advice, and I confronted George one day when I walked into the Common Room to find it empty for all except him.

I honestly didn't even think. I couldn't stop myself- not as I marched over to him and flipped his Charms book shut, demanding his attention.

"For Merlin's sakes, am I not ever going to get this done-" he exclaimed loudly, before his gaze met mine and turned to one of surprise. "-oh- Bree…"

"This is about Jason, isn't it?" I demanded, and his lips pursing in annoyance was all the real confirmation I needed. "It is. Why? Why are you refusing to be in my presence for longer than thirty seconds?! Do you hate him that much?!"

He shook his head, raising his hands defensively. "I don't hate him- I just- I don't like him. I don't… I don't think he's good for you."

"George," I said imploringly, dropping to my knees in front of him and grabbing his hand, clutching it tightly. "If you don't like him, tell me why. If you can give me an honest answer- something other than that you get a 'bad vibe' off of him- something _real_ and _honest_- and I'll cut all ties with him."

His gaze held mine steadily. "What, so you'd actually listen to me?" he scoffed.

"Of course I would- you're my best friend," I said simply, and his mocking gaze dropped to one of absolute sincerity. "So be honest- why don't you like me being around him?"

"I… because, I…" he swallowed thickly.

I nodded encouragingly. "You… what?" I prompted.

He stared at me for a moment, before his hand clutched mine tighter for just a single second, and then he dropped my hand and gaze altogether.

"I guess I don't have a valid reason," he whispered.

I don't know what I was expecting him to say. I don't know what I wanted him to say.

But it wasn't that. The sudden sinking, disappointed feeling deep in my gut told me that it was not that.

Swallowing thickly, I nodded slowly and got to my feet. "Alright," I said quietly. "I'll just leave you to your Charms, then. Sorry I bothered you."

I left then, and he let me go.

* * *

><p>The next two weeks passed faster than I expected. I managed to spend every single second of my spare time chipping away on the mountain of homework that only ever seemed to grow bigger, never smaller. Which is why 9pm Friday evening found me not relaxing in front of the fireplace with my friends as I would have wished, but rather sitting in the library with my brother and his friends scribbling away at yet another of Snape's bloody essays.<p>

Funnily enough, the three fifth years with me were also working on a Snape essay.

Well, Sam and Hermione were. Ron seemed a little too busy muttering. "Dick. What a fucking dick. Waste of space, waste of time- bloody hell, Snape…"

"Oh, just do it!" Hermione snapped loudly, and before Ron could retaliate, Harry returned from his Occlumency lesson, shocking us all into silence.

He looked horrible. Deathly pale so his scar stood out, mussed hair and red rimmed eyes. He looked like he was shivering.

"Oh my God!" I cried, jumping to my feet. "Harry! Are you alright?"

"Yeah… fine… I dunno," I muttered impatiently, rubbing his scar absentmindedly. "Listen, I've just realized something… the door- the door I've been dreaming about- I've seen it before, in real life!"

"Wait, what- there's a door now?" I interrupted.

"I have these dreams about a door- almost every night- for months," Harry explained, still very rushed. "This big black door, and I know that it means something, but I've never been able to go through it!"

"And you've seen it before?' Sam prompted.

Harry nodded quickly. "Yes! The day of my trial! I was _there!_ It's in the Ministry of Magic- it's called the Department of Mysteries, and _that's _where Mr Weasley was when he was attacked!"

I reeled back in surprise. "Is this one of _your_ dreams or one of… You-Know-Who's?"

"It's Voldemort- but what would he want with the door?" Sam asked

"I think- I think the weapon he wants is there!" Harry cried, referencing what Sirius had let slip all those months ago but what none of us had been able to forget since. "The weapon Voldemort wants is in the Department of Mysteries!"

"The Department of Mysteries- I've never heard of that," I breathed. "What could be in there?"

Ron swallowed thickly. "Bill mentioned it once- all I know is that the people who work there are called Unspeakables, because nobody really seems to know what they do. Weird place to have a weapon…"

"It's not weird at all," Sam shook his head. "Experimental magic or any number of top secret things the Ministry is developing? Sounds like it'd be right up Voldemort's alley."

"Harry, are you sure you're alright?" Hermione spoke up again, and I looked away from my brother to see Harry rubbing his hands over his scar roughly.

"Yeah, fine, I just…" he swallowed. "I don't like Occlumency much."

"I expect anyone would feel shaky if they'd had their mind attacked over and over again," Hermione said sympathetically. "Look, let's get back to the common room, it'll be a bit more comfortable there…"

We packed up all of our things and headed back towards the Seventh floor. Walking a bit slower, I pulled Sam back to my pace so the other fifth years ended up walking quite a bit ahead of us.

"This whole Voldemort projection thing… give me more details. What exactly does it entail?" I asked quietly, and Sam frowned at Harry's back.

"Emotions- sometimes Harry will feel a sudden flash of something, and it's not come from him- it's come from Voldemort feeling something particularly strong. There's images, mostly whilst he's dreaming," he replied just as quietly. "He's seen nothing but that door for months- Voldemort's been all but obsessing over it… and I suppose we finally know why."

My eyes drew up to the dark haired boy ahead of me, still rubbing his scar. "I don't like this at all," I said simply, and I didn't. I had had a pit deepening in my stomach ever since Harry had first spoken about this strange little bond. "You know that nothing good can come of this, don't you?"

Sam nodded slowly. "He needs to learn Occlumency. He doesn't see the urgency, but he _needs _to get Voldemort out of his head."

We reached the common room then, and saw that Hermione's prediction of comfort was pretty well off the mark. The room was full to the brim with cheering and laughing students, and I soon found the source of the excitement: the twins were demonstrating their latest bit of joke shop merchandise.

"Headless Hats!" George shouted gleefully, as Fred waved a pointed hat decorated with a fluffy pink feather at the watching students. "Two galleons each- watch Fred now!"

Fred swept the hat onto his head very dramatically. For a second, he just looked a bit stupid. Then, both the hat and the head vanished.

A few girls screamed, but everyone else roared with laughter. But my eyes weren't on the invisible twin- they were on George, who was beaming at the audience widely.

I swallowed thickly, and tried to shove the hurt down before it made an appearance. He looked so happy, so carefree… like my absence in his life the past two weeks had meant nothing, when every day he remained absent from mine I felt like there was a hole in my chest.

"And off again!" he shouted gleefully, and Fred obliged, his head reappearing the second the pink feathered hat left his head.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," I said quietly, and I realized that Sam had been watching me the whole time, a sad sort of look on his face. I tried to smile, but his stare told me that I'd failed.

"It's a clear night out- we could head up to the astronomy tower and check out the stars. We haven't done that in a while," he suggested quietly, and my gaze softened.

"Thanks, Sam, but Harry's problems are more important than mine."

"You're my sister. Your problems always come first, you goofball," he said, as though it were obvious. "Listen, Bree… George's issue isn't Jason. It's _you with_ Jason. Don't you get that?"

My eyebrows raised. "What? What do you mean?"

Sam let out a sigh. "Think about it, you idiot. Sometimes the best thing for us is right in front of us, and we don't even know it," he said, squeezing my hand. "Think about what makes you happy, Bree. Think about it and grab onto it and never let it go."

With that, Sam turned away from me and headed over to where his friends had set up in the corner of the room. And when he left, he left me even more confused than ever.

There was another round of cheers, and my gaze subconsciously lifted to the twins again. Fred's head was invisible again, but George's was clear as day- and his gaze was already firmly on me. I looked away in a flash, feeling suddenly overwhelmed, like I couldn't breathe- there were too many people in here, and I needed to get out.

I practically scrambled my way to the portrait hole, breathing in the crisp air of the empty corridor I fell into. It didn't last for long- barely a second later, the portrait hole opened again, and I spun around to come face to face with George.

His gaze softened, and the watery feeling in my eyes told me why. Turning my face to hide that I was wiping my eyes, I cleared my suddenly dry throat.

_What made me happy?_

"I don't want to fight with you, George. I _hate_ it," I whispered. "I don't even know why we're fighting in the first place- but I don't want to…"

His entire face fell, and we lapsed into a long silence.

"We're fighting…" he eventually managed quietly, "because I am the most thickheaded… idiot…_"_

I don't know which one of us moved first, but before I knew it I was in his arms. And it felt so fucking right.

_What made me happy?_

The answer was easy.

"It's you," I whispered against his shirt, and he pulled back slightly, his hand coming up to frame my face and bring my gaze to meet his one of confusion.

"You make me so, so happy," I admitted, and his gaze softened as he once again pulled me back against his chest, pressing his lips against the crown of my head.

"I don't deserve you," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I'm so, so sorry. I don't deserve you at all."

I shook my head. "Please don't apologize. Don't- just promise we're good."

He brushed his hand through my hair in the way I'd always loved, and nodded. "Of course we're good. Of course we are… you're my Breezy."

I didn't even have words. I just pressed myself against him tighter, closed my eyes, and allowed myself to feel so much joy at being back in his arms that my heart _ached _with it.

Because he was my best friend. My very, very best friend, and he made me happier than anything.

* * *

><p>The next morning when George and I entered the Great Hall laughing together, Katie actually stood up and let out a cheer.<p>

"MY BABIES ARE BACK TOGETHER!"

I rolled my eyes good naturedly as George and I sat down between her and Angelina.

"Ah, good, I was sick of seeing you both mope around," Angelina said, and Lee narrowed his eyes.

"You apologize to her for being a twat?" he directed at George.

"Yes, yes, apologies have been made," George said quickly, his ears turning red as he poured muesli into his bowl, keeping his eyes nervously down on the mundane task.

"Was it sincere?" Angelina prompted.

I pretended to think it over. "Hmmmm, a bit more groveling would be nice…" I said teasingly, and George grinned at me before we all lapsed into silence.

Lee was eventually the one to break it. "Don't know about groveling, but I do know something else that should cheer you up."

And with that, he leant forward to pick up George's bowl of freshly made porridge, and dumped it on his head.

I squeaked loudly, my hand shooting up to cover my mouth. Everyone else was frozen in shock.

"LEE!" George yelled furiously. The dark skinned boy just grinned unrepentantly at him- a look that was quickly wiped off when a bowl of cereal was thrown into his face.

Lee grimaced and spat some milk out of his mouth, glaring over at the thrower- George. "Hey, that was totally uncalled for! You were the one being a prat!"

"YOU DUMPED FOOD ON MY FUCKING HEAD!"

"YEAH? THAT AIN'T SHIT BUDDY!"

And then Lee's pumpkin juice, still in the goblet, flew across the table to hit George. Unfortunately, George brought his arm up to block the blow, causing the goblet to topple over and empty its contents onto Katie's chest.

She gasped loudly, and then screeched. And I could no longer stop my laughter from escaping around the hand that covered my mouth.

Her gaze shot up to mine, turning to a glare in a second. "Oh… you think that's _funny_ do you?!" she snarled, throwing herself at me over the table and stopping my scream by shoving a handful of marmalade in my face.

Halfway choking on the chunk that ended up in my mouth, I spluttered as I shot her a glare. Her look was too damn smug- so I picked up Fred's plate of pancakes and dumped the whole thing on her head.

She screamed loudly- and that was when Seamus Finnigan whistled loudly, grabbing ours and the rest of the Hall's attention as he stood up on his chair with a wide grin.

"FOOD FIGHT!"

And it was on.

Food was everywhere- in the air, on the floor, on the students. I scooped up a handful of soggy oatmeal and stood up on my chair, pelting it over the heads of half a dozen students to hit my brother- only to miss and hit the Boy Who Lived instead. He spun around with a barely concealed laugh, before grabbing a bunch of pancakes and starting to throw them down the table at me.

I screamed loudly, ducking down closer to the ground. A hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me downwards, and suddenly I was sheltered underneath the Gryffindor table. Breathing heavily like I'd just run a marathon, I wiped honey matted hair out of my face to grin up at my savior, George.

He laughed loudly at the sight of me, before reaching up and brushing more of my hair back off my face, one hand falling down to cradle my face once he'd deemed the job sufficiently done.

"I know I've been an enormous prat to you, and you don't deserve that. I don't ever want to make you unhappy like I know I have these past two weeks," he said honestly, panting slightly from the physical exertion of the food fight. "My apology last night was halfhearted- please, Bree. _Please_ forgive me."

"_Of course _I do," I said immediately. He grinned widely, dazzlingly, and my breath hitched as his face moved closer to mine. His thumb stroked my jaw absently, and without realizing it my eyes flickered down to his lips, now a hairsbreadth away from my own.

And then, he shoved a handful of whipped cream into my face.

I screamed his name, swiping cream out of my face and almost choking on my laughter.

"YOU'RE DEAD, WEASLEY!" I screamed, regaining my vision only to see him scrambling out from under the table, turning back to shoot me a mischievous grin that set me off on another laughing spree. And then, I dived back up and back into the line of fire to get my revenge.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I don't think it's my best work, but hopefully you enjoy it all the same. Leave me some feedback loves xxx<strong>


	28. The Gryffindor Yoga Team

"I am absolutely disgusted with the behavior shown here today from _every single one of you!"_

I winced, my eyes hesitantly moving from the floor up to a furious McGonagall, Snape, Sprout and Flitwick. Seeing the flames in McGonagall's gaze, I quickly dropped mine back to my feet.

The food fight had been a ball, but eventually, it had had to end.

And that had happened when the teachers came sprinting into the room, screaming at us all to stop. It was only once a rogue pancake had smacked Snape in the face that the man had simply swiped his wand and frozen us all where we stood- Lee mid dive off of the table, and me mid throw of a bowl of porridge.

Once we'd been unfrozen, the approximately 200 students who had participated in the food fight were herded like sheep to sit at the front of the room- the room that barely even resembled the grand Great Hall I knew lay beneath all the grime.

We were surrounded by food. The mess wasn't just smudged all over us, but all over the room- the walls, the floor… absolutely everything. _Nothing _had escaped tainting.

"This is not the way that we have taught you to behave! These are not the sort of actions that this school condones _whatsoever!" _Sprout fumed.

Flitwick frowned. "Well? Do any of you have anything to say for yourselves?!"

We all wisely chose not to comment. This was bad enough already.

"_No_?" McGonagall snarled. "Good. Then you haven't lost all your sense of intelligence. _Every single person_ in this room will receive three weeks' worth of detentions, and 20 points will be taken from every single person involved."

Internally, I groaned. Three fucking weeks- and the amount of kids present meant that that wasn't going to be any small number of points.

"Anybody who isn't in Gryffindor may also have additional punishments delved out by their Heads of Houses," McGonagall said strictly, and the look on Snape's still honey covered face told us that this would definitely be the case for the Slytherin's involved. "Now, get back to your common rooms and get cleaned up!"

Thankful for the dismissal, we shot to our feet- until McGonagall's voice sounded again.

"_Not you lot!"_

We didn't even bother to pretend we didn't know this was directed at us. Turning slowly, the lot of us winced at her furious glare as the rest of the students and teachers filed out past us, until it was just the seven of us left in the room.

"You are all in your seventh and final year at school here," McGonagall fumed. "Legally, you are adults- but clearly, mentally you're all still children!"

I took slight offence to that. Lee was pretty childish, but I thought the rest of us were okay.

"This is not the sort of behavior I accept from Gryffindor students. The lot of you will receive an extra _two weeks'_ worth of detentions for instigating this incident! Now get back to your common room!"

We all but ran from the room, not wanting to be around McGonagall any longer than was strictly necessary in case she decided to start handing out more detentions. It wasn't until we were safely inside the common room that we felt safe enough to break our silence- which Lee did by breaking out into hooting laughter.

"Only five week's detention? Fuckin' easy!"

"_Only _five?!" Alicia groaned. "That's over a month!"

"Totally worth it- did you see Ron pelt that little twit Draco Malfoy with his porridge? If ever an action was heroic enough to deserve to be awarded house points, it was that one."

"Merlin, glad to finally be in private," Fred groaned, making a disgusted face and reaching into his pants, pulling out a waffle and throwing it into the fire. "That's been bugging my bits for _ages."_

That was the point where I lost it. I could no longer hold in my giggles, and soon everyone else joined me. "That's disgusting, Fred," Katie sniggered, but the general consensus was that Lee was right- it had been worth it.

"SHOTTY FIRST SHOWER!" Angelina screamed, making a dive for the stairs leading to the dormitory. Katie, Alicia and I shouted our objection, taking off after her and attempting to clamber over each other to reach the dormitory first. "BITCH, I WILL CUT YOU!"

* * *

><p>The generally cheerful attitude that hung around after the food fight very quickly dissolved; everyone was being pushed to their absolute limit. As if oncoming exams and almost daily newspaper articles about mysterious disappearances weren't enough, Umbridge seemed to have returned from the holidays with a new vindictive streak. Almost evert day, the wall just outside the Great Hall held a new Educational Decree, usually something irrelevant like 'students appearances are to be smartly presented at all times.' One Thursday morning, I entered the Entrance Hall to hear Lee screeching, successfully drawing the attention of everyone moving inside on their way to breakfast.<p>

"Lee!' I cried in concern, running over. "Lee, what happened? Are you alright?!"

He turned and opened his mouth a few times, trying unsuccessfully to say something and only managing to make small squeaking noises. Eventually, he just pointed to a brand new Educational Decree.

_'Boys and girls are not permitted to be within 8 inches of each other.'_

From beside me, Angelina started sniggering. "What, that's it?"

"The _fuck_ do you mean, _'that's it'?!_" He demanded, his anger seeming to return the use of his capability to form words. "Umbridge is trying to ruin my sex life!"

I raised my eyebrows. "Somehow I don't believe that her ultimate goal upon taking on the role of High Inquisitor was to ruin your sex life," I said flatly. Lee acted as though he didn't hear me, which he may very well not have in his fury.

"She won't get away with this. She won't," he vowed, turning and stalking into the Great Hall. Dutifully, Angelina and I followed him to where he threw himself down at the Gryffindor table, pulling an entire tray of scrambled eggs towards him and growling at a first year who looked like they were going to complain about it.

"Lee, you can't even have that much sex during the school term," Angelina pointed out.

"You'd be surprised," he replied immediately through a mouthful of scrambled eggs, his incessant need to brag overtaking his anger.

The twins arrived then, flopping down on either side of me. "Yeah, our room becomes a no-go zone more often than you'd think," Fred said, his tone border lining between impressed and annoyed.

"I had sex in a broom closet once. Broke one of the school brooms with my butt," Lee said proudly.

"Isn't that kind of inappropriate, though?" I said, "I mean… dude, this is a learning environment. There are kids here."

"What? I don't get my dick out in a classroom full of first years, I'm not a fuckin' pervert," Lee snapped in defense. "You're _such_ a virgin, Bree."

I just rolled my eyes, nonplussed. "And you are _definitely _a pervert. Well, I guess not so much now there's Educational Decrees put in place specifically telling you to keep it in your pants."

"Like that will stop him," George muttered.

It was at that moment that Angelina shook herself out of the trance she'd fallen into. "I think I just wrote chapter twelve in my head. Our heroine's future husband has come to seek out his fiancé and put a stop to her debauchery. Our lovers hide in a broom closet from him, and things start getting hot and heavy until-"

"-aaaaaand I'm gone," I announced, grabbing my bag and standing up, heading up to Divination with the twins close behind me.

So Lee was shot into a filthy mood in the wake of that mornings Educational Decree, and soon enough everyone else joined him. Angelina was getting moody with the gale force winds consistently blowing around the castle, as it was impacting her Quidditch practices. She was in desperate need of blowing off steam, which she usually did by writing, but she hit a pretty big bout of writers block and so took her annoyance out on everyone else instead. Then she started begging Lee for details of his sexual conquests for inspiration, which in turn annoyed Katie and Alicia when they were trying to study one night. Katie had a subsequent blow out with Lee when she called him a whore, which led to Alicia yelling at the both of them about the fact that she was still failing Defense Against the Dark Arts and the last thing she needed was "you two fucking idiot's stirring everyone up" and distracting her. That was the exact moment the pieces of candy the twins were casting spells on exploded simultaneously and very loudly, which led to Alicia turning her aggression on them, to which of course they had to defend themselves once she called their joke shop products "stupid."

The whole thing was a damn mess. Everyone's emotions were running high, including Sam and Hermione's, with every new Educational Decree that hinted to the fact that Umbridge knew there was an illicit group operating somewhere in the school. Ron was moody because he thought he was a terrible flier and the weather was stopping him from practicing, and- well, Harry was just stressed out about the whole You-Know-Who thing. Which I think is kinda understandable.

Even Trelawney was in a bad mood. Umbridge was sitting in on more and more of her classes, and having clearly decided a long time ago that Trelawney was a bad teacher, she spent the majority of her time just making cruel comments about our Divination Professor. This clearly rattled Trelawney, as it would anyone, and it led to her predicting Fred's death more and more regularly. Fred had always just rolled his eyes and shrugged it off, but since Umbridge had started getting crueler and crueler, Fred had begun participating more and more in his own death predictions. Now, whenever Trelawney started in, he shuffled forward to the edge of his seat and listened intently, even asking her for more details for a little extra assistance with the whole "staying alive" thing. Fred explained it one day by telling us, "I don't exactly like Trelawney that much, but that's nothing compared to how much I hate Umbridge. She's just plain cruel, and not even old Sybil deserves that."

I had to acknowledge that this was rather sweet, and I definitely had to concur with the whole hating Umbridge thing. Jason had met me outside of her classroom one day, bending down to press his lips against mine, and she'd given us both detentions for defying Educational Decree Number whatever-the-fuck-we-were-up-to. I tried to ignore how smug Fred and George looked.

But there was a silver lining, as there always is. The DA meetings continued, and they served to improve everyone's moods each time we met. It felt beyond incredible to actually be doing something instead of sitting by and letting Umbridge win, a feeling which only magnified when she stared us down in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and we could stare right back at her toad like face knowing that we were besting her.

Of course, she most certainly wasn't going to go down without a fight, as demonstrated one morning when I entered the Great Hall to find yet another Educational Decree: _'Those wishing to join the Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit may sign up in the High Inquisitors office.'_

I shouldn't have been as shocked as I was that Umbridge would use students to spy on each other. Nor, I suppose, should I have been as disappointed as I was when I met with Draco in the library for our next tutoring lesson and he was very proudly displaying an Inquisitorial Squad badge underneath his Prefect badge.

We would need to be more careful about the DA from now on, and Hermione found the perfect way soon enough, which she shared with us at our very next DA meeting: a bewitched golden galleon that reflected the date and time of our next meeting when Harry decided upon it. If we were asked to turn out our pockets (which was becoming more regular with Filch on the prowl on behalf of Umbridge), there wouldn't be anything funny about carrying a coin around.

Honestly, I don't even know why I bother to be surprised by her brilliance anymore.

But not only were the DA meetings serving as a way of fighting back against Umbridge, they were also turning out to be a fantastic way of actually _learning_ something. I felt confident that I could pass by Defense Against the Dark Arts NEWT exam with flying colors now, but more importantly… having Harry teach me to defend myself meant that every morning when I read a new story that was clearly linked to You-Know-Who's power increasing, I didn't have to feel so damn terrified.

Harry, too, was getting more out of these meetings than anyone expected. When we first started the DA, his language served to give away his nervousness. "I was thinking maybe…" and "perhaps we should…" were common phrases, his teachings always phrased as questions. Now, he spoke without asking. He planned ahead, and was fully confident in his lessons. It was really obvious that he genuinely loved teaching us, and he loved watching us learn even more, shown by his praise whenever we got something right.

"You're very enthusiastic, Bree, but you're flourishing your wand too much. It gives your enemy enough time to put a guard up; you just need to be fast," he told me one day, and Lee sniggered.

"Yeah, Breezy, you're being way too flamboyant," he said, but the grin was wiped off of his face quick smart when I took Harry's advice and cursed him much quicker than he was able to block.

"Oh, _fantastic _Bree!" Harry cried joyfully. "That's exactly what I want to see, keep that up!"

Lee was frozen still by Petrificus Totalus charm I'd smacked him with, but his eyes still managed to shoot a glare my way.

An hour later, Harry laughingly ignored our begging to continue just a bit longer, and shooed us all from the meeting. "Go do your homework, be responsible students for once," he laughed, and I rolled my eyes. And again, I snuck off to the library before my friends could notice to teach Draco Malfoy Defense Against the Dark Arts in secret.

* * *

><p>And so the term continued, and with it came the first Quidditch match of the season: Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw smashed them 28050- and with this match came the end of my peace.

"Right team. We are exactly four weeks out from our first game. It's against Slytherin, so we all know exactly what to expect. We're going to be stepping up our training regimen in the last few weeks before the match, so I want three morning trainings and three evening trainings a week. Any questions so far?"

I raised my hand tiredly. 'Uh, yeah, I have one. Can I expect any conversation from you lot in the next four weeks to be about anything other than Quidditch?"

"No. Any other questions?"

Fred raised his hand. "Not really a question- more of a statement. Angie, I want to win as much as anyone else, but there's no way I'm letting you force me into running laps around the Quidditch Pitch any more, and I'm making that clear right now."

"Yeah, it's bull, Angelina. I don't have the stamina for that shit," Katie agreed. "Plus there's absolutely zero running in a game of Quidditch, so what's the damn point?"

Alicia, Harry, and George nodded their approval. Ron looked as though he'd do just about anything Angelina told him would make him a better flier.

Unfortunately for the team, it appeared that simple practice was not enough to accomplish this.

One windy evening a few days later found Lee, Sam, and I settled with our Herbology work around the fire whilst the team were all down at the Quidditch pitch. Nearing curfew, the portrait hole swung open and a sea of red robes swarmed in.

"Hello my loves, how was practice?" I called cheerily, only for my grin to fall when Ron stalked past me without a backwards glance.

Fred flopped down beside me. "Well, it wasn't fantastic."

George settled himself down on my other side. "That little git Draco Malfoy and his stupid friends were down there heckling us the whole time," he snapped, and my heart dropped.

"Obviously nothing that we can't handle, but Ron…" Harry trailed off, wincing. "It's not his fault. He's nervous enough as it is- it completely threw him off his game."

"Potentially the worst practice I've ever seen," Katie admitted, and Angelina frowned.

"Well, we're all just going to have to _suck it up_, aren't we?!" she snapped furiously, before turning and stalking off to get cleaned up.

Katie frowned. "Tell ya what… four weeks might not be enough time for us to work our shit into something manageable enough to snatch a win."

The other members of the team frowned, but didn't object.

* * *

><p>The next day found me in the library with Draco Malfoy, working our way through the theoretical component of defensive spells. Something that pleasantly surprised me about Draco was his fantastic work ethic- if he didn't understand something, he worked at it until he did. We were keeping our lessons up to date with his syllabus outlines- first, we would sit down and learn the theory. Then, we would find an unused classroom and actually practice the magic.<p>

"Oh, Draco, that's wonderful," I said, when he answered yet another of my questions correctly. As usual, he seemed to glow when I delivered a compliment. "You don't seem to have any troubles with defensive magic at all. In fact, I think we're ready to move on to the spellcasting portion, if you'd like?"

He grinned widely and nodded. "Fantastic- when suits you?"

"I'm free for the rest of the afternoon, so if you'd like to start now…"

"Ah, I can't," he said disappointedly, shaking his head. "I have an Inquisitorial Squad meeting."

My friendly smile immediately fell- and he clearly noticed it before I could school my expression back to normal. Clearing my throat, I nodded whilst absentmindedly running my fingers over the scars Umbridge had left on the back of my hand. And now Draco was helping her to catch out students she would inevitably delve out the same punishment to.

"Then perhaps we should leave it at that today," I eventually said, and he nodded, beginning to collect his books. He clearly had picked up on the change in my emotions, and didn't argue with me.

"So, does Sunday suit you? Meet here at around 3?" he asked, before simply turning and leaving when I nodded my assent. I watched him retreat, and couldn't help the sigh that escaped me. He knew that I hated his involvement in the Inquisitorial Squad, and it was a definite point of contention between us.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. There was no use sitting here and sulking- I began to gather my books up, intending to head back to see George at the common room, when a voice spoke from behind me.

"Bree."

Turning very slowly, I saw Sam staring down at me. His arms were crossed, and he was barely masking his fury. "Oh," I breathed. "Uh… sup, bitch?"

His glare intensified. "What are you up to, sis?" he asked, his words biting. Oh, fuck… _busted._ He had seen me with Draco- this was the only explanation.

"Oh, um, you know, just doing some study… got the NEWT's coming up…" I lied weakly, and his eyebrows raised mockingly.

"Yeah? Is that so?" He asked. "So would you care to explain what the fuck Draco Malfoy was doing here then?"

Oh, yeah. Totally fuckin' busted.

There was honestly no point denying it any further. So I cleared my throat, and steeled myself for the worst- because Sam was not going to like what I was going to say.

"Yeah… I've sort of been… um… tutoring him."

His eyebrows shot up. "You've been _what?!"_

"Well, he's not so good at learning without someone to push him in the right direction, and I stumbled across him trying to study one day and, well…" I winced as Sam's glare intensified. "I've been helping him."

We lapsed into silence. "How long?" He eventually asked, his tone now dangerously calm.

"How… what?"

_"How long?!"_

I swallowed thickly. "About… about a year."

And that was when Sam exploded. "What the hell do you think you're doing with him?! Tutoring him?! Have you any idea who he is, what he's capable of?!"

"What he's capable of?" I repeated in shock, "Jesus, Sam, he's a _kid!"_

"A _kid? _His father is a Death Eater! The Malfoy's are right in Voldemort's inner circle!"

"Yeah?! And my Dad's a Ministry worker, but that doesn't automatically make me one, too!"

"That's not even _nearly_ the same thing and you know it!" he snarled. "Do you even know him at all? He's so unkind- all the time- to everyone! He's a bad person!"

"Well, it sounds like I know him a hell of a lot better than you do, then."

Sam threw his arms up furiously, before spinning back to glare at me. "You always do this!" he shouted. "You find people and you try to fix them, but you can't fix everyone!"

I shot to my feet furiously. "He doesn't need to be fixed! He needs help to stop from breaking!" I shouted back. "Every single person has the potential for both good and bad inside of us- it's our _choices _that define who we are and who we become! If for your entire life people treat you like shit, then you believe that! Treating him like a Death Eater because of who his father is, or what I heard about him before I met him _isn't fair!_ That's telling him that a Death Eater is all he could ever amount to, and I _won't_ do that! I _won't_ be that person!"

Sam stared at me as I stood before him, breathing heavily, and I couldn't for the life of me identify the look that crossed his face. The silence rang deafeningly between us, until eventually he said quietly "you can't save everyone, Bree. Some people don't want to be saved."

"Well what's wrong with wanting to?" I snapped back, and he shook his head. And without another word, he turned and walked away from me.

My whole body wilted, and I rubbed my forehead tiredly where an ache was beginning to form. "Sam!" I called at his back, but he didn't turn back. "_Damn it,_ Sam!"

I weakly flopped back into my seat, staring at where my brother had retreated. He was furious with me- that much was obvious. I hated fighting with anyone, especially my brothers… but damn it, I was _right!_ I couldn't back down on this. There's good in Draco Malfoy, I see it every day. If only he would show that side to the rest of the world.

* * *

><p>The gang all had Friday afternoons free, and so when the weather permitted it our tradition was to meet by the lake to lounge in the sunshine. This was the first week back that the weather wasn't too awfully windy and cold- in fact, it was a beautiful day. Blue sky as far as the eye could see, the sun bright and warm to my skin. Days like today made me happy- they made me feel like a good day was ahead.<p>

I got caught up talking to McGonagall after her class, so I was the last to reach the lake that afternoon. The sight that greeted me was… confusing. The closer I got, the less sense it seemed to make.

Everyone was laid out basking in the rare sunlight, but Lee and Katie were stood together, doing a variety of odd poses.

"Are you… doing _yoga_?" I asked in disbelief when I finally reached them. Katie glanced up at me, her face partly obscured by her arms raised up to the heavens.

"It's good for our breathing and our stress," Katie said, nodding wisely.

"Oh, yeah, okay, that's cool," I nodded. "But… Lee, why are _you _doing yoga?"

"Because Katie asked him to," Fred supplied.

"And you agreed?" I clarified, assuming that Katie would have also asked the rest of the people surrounding me to also participate.

"Um, yes, I agreed, because my BFF asked me to do something and as a good friend, I agreed!" he snapped, clearly out of breath as he strained to stay in the one position.

"Yeah, and he didn't know what yoga was and he thought that she was offering him yogurt," Angelina sniggered quietly as I sat down beside her. But before I could laugh- before I could even settle myself on the ground- a scream rang out from the doors of the school I had just exited.

Leaping back to my feet, I spun to face the school to see that there was a crowd formed around the doors.

George appeared at my shoulder as everyone else hurried to their feet. "Did you see anything unusual on your way down here?" he asked me, and I shook my head- I hadn't noticed a thing. I took off at a run towards the Hall, the others close at my heel- my God, what if someone had been hurt?

The scream sounded again, and I clutched my wand tighter- flashes of our DA meetings ran through my head as we reached the school and pushed our way through the flood of students. Fred and George were enormous enough to easily cut a path, but I was not. The first time I was knocked back by someone bigger than me, George's hand threaded through my own to keep me close, and soon we had reached the front of the crowd- my hand relaxed on my wand, but a sudden bout of nausea hit me.

Professor Trelawney was standing in the middle of the circle of onlookers, her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other- she looked utterly mad. Her hair was sticking on end, her glasses were lopsided, and her innumerable shawls and scarves were trailing haphazardly behind her. She was facing me, with two large trunks lying on the floor beside her, one of them upside down- almost as though it had been thrown down the stairs after her. Professor Trelawney was staring, horrified, at the woman standing a few paces in front of me: Dolores Umbridge.

"No!" she shrieked. "No… this cannot be happening, it cannot… I refuse to accept it!"

Umbridge let out a familiar giggle, and it sounded even crueler than it usually did. "You didn't see this coming?" she repeated in her girlish voice, sounding amused. "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather, you must surely have released that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable that you would be sacked?"

"You can't!" howled Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can't sack me! I've b-been here for sixteen years! H-hogwarts is m-my h-home!"

"It _was_ your home," Umbridge corrected, and though I couldn't see her face, I could _hear_ how much enjoyment she was getting from this as Trelawney sank, sobbing, onto one of her trunks, "until an hour ago, when the Minister for Magic countersigned your Order of Dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from the Hall. You are embarrassing us."

Trelawney let out another loud cry, rocking backwards and forwards on her trunk in paroxysms of grief.

"Oh, God…" I murmured sadly, and George's hand tightened around mine. "Oh, how _awful…"_

McGonagall broke out of the crowd across from us, hurrying towards Trelawney. She bent beside her, patting her firmly on the back and withdrawing a handkerchief from her robes. "There, there, Sybil… calm down… blow your nose on this… it's not as bad as you think… you're not going to have to leave Hogwarts…"

"Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" Umbridge asked in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forwards. "And your authority for that statement is…?"

"That would be mine."

The deep voice rang out from the open front doors, and students scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore strode towards Trelawney and McGonagall.

"_Yours,_ Professor Dumbledore?" Umbridge repeated with an unpleasant little laugh. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here-" she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robed "-an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister for Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher whom she- that is to say, I- feel is not performing to the standards required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her.

Dumbledore politely smiled at Umbridge, before glancing down at a still sobbing Trelawney. "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to banish them from the grounds. I am afraid that the power to do that still resides with the Headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts."

At this, Trelawney gave a mad sort of laugh. "No- no, I'll g-go, Dumbledore! I sh-shall leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortunes elsewhere-"

"No," Dumbledore said sharply. "It is my wish that you remain, Sybil."

He turned to McGonagall and requested that she help Trelawney back upstairs, which she did. Professor Sprout came hurrying forwards out of the crowd and took ahold of Professor Trelawney's arm, helping to guide her back up the marble staircase. Professor Flitwick hurried out of the crowd after them, levitating the trunks still at the base of the stairs to follow them back up to the Divination Tower.

Professor Umbridge was standing completely still, and when she spoke next, her tone was like ice. "And what," she said in a whisper that carried all throughout the silent hall, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh, that won't be a problem," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."

"You've found-?" Umbridge cried shrilly, "_You've_ found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that Educational Decree Number twenty-two-"

"The Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if- and _only _if- the Headmaster is unable to find one," Dumbledore interrupted flatly. "And I am happy to say that on this occasion, I have succeeded. May I introduce you?"

He turned back to face the open front doors, and we all quickly turned to follow his gaze. Now that there was silence again, I made out the sound of hooves coming towards us. Was the new teacher arriving on a horse?

There were shocked murmurs at the front of the hall, and the crowd pushed backwards to create a path for the newcomer to reach Dumbledore and Umbridge. And what I saw caused my jaw to drop right open.

Our new teacher, technically, I suppose… _was_ a horse.

"Oh sweet Mother Mary," Katie murmured.

Dumbledore's smile widened. "This is Firenze," he announced happily to a thunderstruck Umbridge. "I think you'll find him suitable."

* * *

><p><strong>Bit of a shorter one here, a few different things happening but they'll all be important a bit later on. Is 5,500 words short or is my opinion just skewed because I keep pumping out such monster chapters? Well, either way, here you go. As always, I hope you're enjoying! <strong>


	29. Is Anyone Even Passing Divination NEWTS?

"Bree? Are you absolutely sure that you don't want me to stay with you?"

Shaking my head, I rolled over and faced her. Katie and Alicia were standing, fully dressed and ready to go, by my bed. I was still laying in it, the covers pulled up to my chin, and looking to all the world like a mess.

"Honestly, I'm sure I just need to sleep it off," I reassured them tiredly, and Katie frowned but nodded.

"We'll duck back up to see you during the break, alright?" Alicia said, and I nodded, smiling up at them.

"You two are wonderful, thank you," I said. "But go, or you'll be late for Snape's class."

They both nodded, before turning and leaving. I rubbed my eyes and rolled back over, until a loud SMACK echoed throughout the room and made me jump.

Turning, I saw a large stack of _Witch Weekly_ magazines sitting on my bedside table. Ruby stood beside them with a smile. "Here, you can read some of my magazines," she said. "They should help the day go faster. I hope you're feeling better."

"Oh, Ruby, that's lovely, thank you," I said, completely sincerely, and she nodded before leaving the room. Honestly, Ruby may not have been the smartest individual, but she certainly was one of the kindest.

In all honesty, their concerns were all unwarranted. I didn't really feel all that sick at all, but I knew I had to be. Or at least, I had to be coming down with something. Because lately, I'd been feeling quite feverish. Like a few days ago, when George had threaded his fingers through mine as we were walking to class like he sometimes likes to do- I had felt my whole body flush red hot. Or yesterday, when George had pulled me down to cuddle up with him by the common room fire, which was not at all a rare occurrence- it had happened again. And then a bit later when he'd ducked off somewhere with his brother, dropping a parting kiss to my temple- again.

I had to be sick. What other explanation is there?

And growing up with a Healer for a brother, I knew that the most contagious time of an illness was before all the symptoms showed themselves. If you rested up in the early stages, the illness wouldn't hang around as long. So I wasn't taking any risks, because I _had to be sick._

With a sigh, I sank back into my pillows, and pulled my thick blanket back up over my head.

_What other explanation is there?_

* * *

><p>True to their word, the girls popped back up to visit me during the lunch break. I didn't immediately notice their arrival, having been dozing away, until a strong, pleasant smell hit me.<p>

"Oh, Kates, you got me soup?" I asked, spotting the large bowl in her hands. "That's so thoughtful, you guys…"

"Nah, we didn't," Angelina said flatly. "Georgie did."

"We told him you were sick so he skipped lunch and took off down to the kitchens to request the elves make you some chicken noodle," Katie said. "He said it was your favorite when you're under the weather."

"Oh," I replied, struck suddenly dumb. "I- that- yes… it is my favorite."

George never forgot any of my favorites. Books, foods, flowers… everything. He knew them all.

"He's quite worried about you," Alicia piped up. "He asked us to bring it up and make sure you were doing alright."

"He was pretty down about not being able to come up here himself- tried to scale the ramp up here, but people kept sliding down and hitting him," Katie said, blowing on the steaming soup and setting it down on my bedside table carefully. "If you're feeling any better, maybe you could come down to the common room and reassure him you aren't dying."

"Oh… um…" I felt my stomach clench uncomfortably, and shook my head. The illness must finally be hitting. "No, I'm not really feeling very well still… I think it's best if I stay up here…"

Suddenly on Mother Mode again, Alicia nodded. "Of course, but I want you to finish all of that soup before you go back to sleep! You need to get something into your stomach!"

"Yeah, Bree- does she need to sit here and spoon feed it to you?" Angelina sniped sarcastically with a grin. "She can even make choo-choo sounds if little bubba Bree wants her to!"

I rolled my eyes. "Perhaps next time."

Sniggering, they headed for the door. I called them back at the last second.

"Thanks, you guys. And please thank George- tell him I'm alright. He's always so… so…" I didn't finish. I couldn't.

They seemed to understand, merely nodding before leaving.

George was always so considerate. So caring. So absolutely and unutterably wonderful in every single way. So completely integral to my very existence at this point that the idea of life without him sent a bolt of pain straight through my chest.

Suddenly feeling genuinely unwell, I left the soup untouched and burrowed back underneath the comfort of my blankets. George was everything, and avoiding him left me feeling so, so guilty.

Closing my eyes, I shook my head. I was doing him a favor. Clearly unwell, I didn't want him to catch it.

This lasted for two more days. I never came down with anything, and told myself that this was because I was so preemptive in quarantining myself that the disease just withered and died before it fully spread. That seemed logical.

I couldn't explain why I felt so nervous returning to classes, but Katie was very understanding. She stayed with me all morning, accompanying me down the stairs. It was late- breakfast was nearly over, but the common room wasn't empty as I'd hoped.

"_Bree!"_ A voice shouted, before a body wrapped around my own, pulling me into their arms and pulling me straight up off of the floor. The scent was one I knew better than any other, and I had returned the embrace before I even realized what I was doing.

George gently placed me back on the ground before beginning to fuss over me. He brushed my hair back out of my face and cupped my cheeks, observing me for any obvious injuries or lingering illness. "Merlin, are you alright? You had me worried…"

"I'm fine, Georgie," I told him. "Just feeling a bit under the weather, nothing extreme…"

"I know- you're sick all the time, but you still brave through your responsibilities until I have to physically restrain you to get you to rest," he said. "I figured if you were in bed it must have been serious…"

I couldn't help the small, fond smile that came to my face as I cupped his hand were it remained on my cheek. "You're so wonderful," I eventually said simply, and his smile grew.

Behind me, I heard Katie whisper "fuck, I feel like somebody just punched me in the chest. Those two are so damn adorable…"

Clearing my throat, I stepped back from George. "We should head down to class or we'll be late. What do we have first?"

"Well blondie, you chose a fantastic day to return to us," Fred said. "Just in time for our first class with the Centaur."

Divination classes were going to be different with Firenze than they had ever been with Trlawney- that became apparent within the first second. The class was no longer to be held in the North Tower, but on the ground floor (for obvious reasons). Upon opening the door, for a second I thought I'd stepped straight into the Forbidden Forest.

The classroom floor had become springily mossy, and trees- real trees- were growing out of it, their leafy branches fanned across the ceiling and windows, so the room was full of slanting shafts of soft, dappled, green light.

The people who had already arrived were sitting on the ground, leaning against the trees and the boulders. Firenze was standing in the middle of the clearing where there were no trees, and he looked up to greet us with a polite smile when we entered.

We all returned his smile politely, but slightly hesitantly- this was the first time I'd ever actually been around a centaur before, and being so close to him was a little bit daunting. His smile was lovely, and kind- but what really drew my gaze was what looked like a faded, hoof-sized bruise in the middle of his chest. Did another centaur kick him?

Lee and Alicia were already in the room, so we headed towards them. Lee gave me a huge grin, leaning over to give me a brief one armed hug when I settled beside him. "You're back, blondie! How ya feeling?"

"Yeah, I'm alright, Lee. I was just feeling a bit under the weather."

Lee immediately frowned. "Well shit, that's boring. I figured Jason had just boned you too hard and you needed a few days to learn to walk again."

I was still choking on my own spit when Firenze began to speak.

"Professor Dumbledore has kindly arranged this classroom for us in imitation of my natural habitat," he said, gesturing around at our surroundings just in case we hadn't all noticed we were surrounded by fucking trees, "I would have preferred to teach you in the Forbidden Forest, which was- until Monday- my home… but that is no longer possible."

I had already opened my mouth to ask why when I realized it wasn't my place. This centaur owed me nothing- but from the tone of his voice and that bruise on his chest, I put together that the reason it was no longer possible might not have been a nice one.

"I would like to begin where Sybil Trelawney left you- with star gazing," Firenze said, raising his hand towards the leafy canopy above us before lowering it again slowly- as he did, the light in the room dimmed, so that the room looked exactly like a forest clearing at Twilight. I gasped at how beautiful it was, and I wasn't the only one audibly voicing their surprise- from behind me, I heard Fred mutter "bloody hell" in an awed tone.

"Lie back on the floor," Firenze said calmly, "and observe the Heavens. Here it is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races."

I lay back, my head cushioned by the soft grass beneath me. A second later, I felt a weight on my stomach, and looked down in surprise to see that George had used me as a pillow. He shot me a wink, and I shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. His gaze immediately turned to one of concern.

"You okay?" He asked quietly, and I forced myself to relax. This was _George, _for god's sakes. He was practically my other half.

"I'm fine," I told him quietly, bringing my hands up to run fondly through his mess of hair. The action calmed me- so familiar was it- and he relaxed further against me. _I must still be getting sick... _

Firenze began to speak then, drawing me out of my thoughts and back to reality.

"I know that you have learnt the planets and the names of their moons in Astronomy," Firenze's clear voice rang out, as my eyes followed the patterns of stars above my head, "and that you have mapped the stars progress through the Heavens. Centaurs have unraveled the mysteries of those movements over centuries. Our findings teach us that the future may be glimpsed in the sky above us-"

"Professor Trelawney did astrology with us!" An eager Hufflepuff girl cried. "She said that Mars causes accidents and burns and things like that, and when it makes an angle to Saturn, like it is right now, it means people have to be extra careful when handling hot things-"

"That," Firenze said calmly, "is human nonsense."

George snorted from below me, as the Hufflepuff girl fell silent.

"Trivial hurts… tiny human accidents… these are of no more significance than the scurrying of ants to the wide universe, and are unaffected by planetary movements."

"Then what is affected by the planetary movements?" I spoke up curiously. "What exactly is a big enough event that the stars are able to tell of it?"

"We centaurs watch the skies for markers of great tides of evil or change," he answered me calmly. "It is not a precise art- It may take ten, twenty, even thirty years to be sure of what we're seeing."

"But if Seeing one thing can span a lifetime… then why bother? Are the things you're Seeing so important to dedicate your life to it?" Angelina asked, genuinely curious.

"The answer to that, Miss Johnson, is yes. The things that we See may take decades to unravel, but Seeing them is of the utmost importance," Firenze answered calmly, before pointing to a bright red star directly above George and I. "For example… In the past decade, the indications have been that wizard kind is living through nothing more than a brief calm between two wars. Mars, bringer of battle, shines brightly above us, suggesting that the fight must soon break out again…"

Class ended soon enough, and we all filed out of the room, significantly chattier than we usually were after a Divination class.

"A decade of watching one star?" Angelina burst out. "That's so… shitty, isn't it? How could anyone be happy to dedicate their lives to watching a single star on the _off chance_ that it might give you some bogus information about an event a few days in the future?"

"What benefit do they really have from getting this vision of the future, anyway?" Fred wondered. "Centaurs are famously quiet. They never do anything with their knowledge, so what's the point of knowing it?"

"Yeah," George agreed. "Personally, I'd like to know a little bit more about this supposed war approaching. He was a bit vague, wasn't he?"

"I don't get centaurs," I agreed tiredly. "Or astrology."

Lee gave a thoughtful sort of hum. "Frankly I personally think it all sounds like bullshit. But I don't really know enough about the stars to dispute it, so I guess I gotta just go with it, yeah?"

_"Hagrid!"_

Lee looked at Alicia oddly. "No, I'm Lee. Are you alright? Did the astrology get to you?"

"No- HAGRID!" She shouted again, pointing excitedly behind us, and I spun around to indeed see that our giant friend had returned at last.

Suddenly forgetting all about Firenze and the stars, I ran excitedly towards our grinning Care of Magical Creatures Professor.

"Hello, yeh lot!" he called with a friendly smile, catching the girls and I effortlessly when we jumped on him in a hug and chuckling heartily. The twins and Lee all hurried after us, patting him on the back enthusiastically.

And that was when I stepped back far enough to get a good look at him- and I felt horror wash over me. "Oh my God- _Hagrid!"_

He looked like he'd been beaten to a pulp. His left eye was swollen so severely it was no more than a thin slit among a mass of purple and blue bruising. There were cuts all over his hands, and he was moving much more gingerly than usual.

"What happened?!" Fred demanded worriedly, but Hagrid waved him off.

"It's nuthin', it's nuthin'!"

"Don't look like nothing, you're in a right state," George replied.

"It's nuthin', I swear. Took a bi' of a nasty tumble down a hill when I was on holiday, tha's all," he said, and I learnt in that moment that Hagrid was an even worse liar than I was. Ignoring our disbelieving looks, he changed the subject. "Had good summers? A good term so far, have yeh?"

It was obvious he didn't want us to pry any further, so we obeyed his wishes. "Er… not the best term we've ever had," I said delicately, unwilling to mention having Umbridge around had made me question whether finishing seventh year was really necessary more than once.

"Bit stressful, you know how it is," George added, "but altogether… somewhat enjoyable."

"But what about you?" Lee asked, when it became obvious Hagrid was about to pry for more information. "You said you were on holiday- where have you been? We've missed having you around!"

Hagrid rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Yeh mean yeh've missed me coverin' for yeh when I find yeh outdoors after dark!" he corrected with a smile, and the three boys grinned. "I've bin in France, actually. Haven' had a good holiday in a while."

"France? You mean near Beauxbatons?" I hinted with a grin, and he flushed.

"Er, yeh, somewhere around there…"

It didn't take the others long to catch on. "Didn't happen to see Madame Maxine while you were over there, did you, Hagrid?" Angelina grinned.

Hagrid cleared his throat. "Well, I'd love to stay an' chat, but I got ta get up ta see the headmaster. Good to see yeh all!" he said loudly, before passing us and continuing his trek through the corridors, occasionally waving to other students excited at his return.

Eventually, Fred let out a deep sigh.

"I can't believe Hagrid is getting laid and I'm not," he said, sounding unbelievably depressed. "We really need to step up our game."

"Speak for yourself," Lee grinned with a wink, and George rolled his eyes.

"Not that your dating woes aren't fascinating, but aren't we gonna talk about the fact that he looks like he's been tortured? That's definitely not from falling down a hill," I said.

Lee shrugged. "I don't know how giants have sex, it could be an injury from Madame Maxine, and I don't want to pry into that cause it sounds kinda gross, but-"

"Oh, ew!" I cried, my hands shooting up to cover my ears. "Conversation over! Fine, I'll let it slide!"

* * *

><p>Classes with Firenze never got any less weird, but the shock factor of having a centaur soon wore off at the very least. He was an odd sort of guy, but quite friendly nonetheless, and always willing to help a struggling student learn. I learnt from Sam one morning after our first few classes that Firenze, as it turned out, was not like regular centaurs. The others, whom Harry had met once or twice, were not nearly as welcoming towards humans. So when Firenze had agreed to help Dumbledore… his herd had banished him. This explained the hoof-shaped mark on his chest- somebody had literally kicked him out.<p>

I decided very quickly that I didn't want to meet the other centaurs. Firenze was enough for me.

But as it always did, time passed. The end of my schooling life was looming ever closer, and with it was final exams. Of course, this meant the workload was ever increasing, and I spent most of my time with my nose buried in a book.

Not tonight, though.

Tonight had been date night. It was midnight and I was only just returning from my impromptu date with Jason (and I actually would have been back much sooner but I had to hide from Filch inside a hidden passage for like 20 minutes), so I was surprised when the common room wasn't empty when I entered.

"Harry," I called, and he turned from where he'd been heading towards the stairs. My grin immediately dropped- he was pale, too pale, sweaty and dazed looking. I darted towards him just as his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell to the floor.

"HARRY!" I shouted, throwing myself down beside him and rolling him onto his back. He was shaking violently, his eyes darting madly behind his closed eyes. "Oh my god, Harry, wake up, please wake up!"

I scooped my hand under his head and kept it elevated so it was no longer smacking against the floor- he looked like he was having a seizure, and I suddenly remembered Sam telling me this sort of behavior was common when Harry was having a vision. Sam had dealt with this before- Sam knew what to do. _Sam._

"I'll be right back," I promised weakly, rolling him onto his side and putting him in the recovery position in case he threw up, before diving over him and sprinting up the stairs three at a time.

"SAM!" I screamed, pushing their door open with such great force that it bounced off of the wall and slammed shut again behind me. Every single one of the boys jumped in their beds, looking dazed. "Sam, get up! Please, get up! Ron, you too!"

Sam was awake quicker than anyone else at my panicked tone, diving out of bed just as I reached him. "What is it?! What happened, Bree?! Are you hurt?!" he demanded, his eyes running over my body, scanning for any signs of injury.

"It's Harry-" I sobbed, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the door. Ron jumped up behind us. "Please, he's not well-"

Ron and Sam were faster than me, and they reached the common room before I did. Harry was shaking even harder than when I'd left him a moment ago, and just as I dropped down beside him he began to let out this noise- this high, maniacal sort of laughter that just chilled me to the bone. It was ecstatic, jubilant… but it was cold, and it was wrong, and it wasn't the sort of sound I ever expected to hear from this kindhearted boy.

"Harry! HARRY!" Ron shouted, shaking him roughly, and when that didn't work and the laughter only increased, Ron reared back and smacked him across the face.

Eyes shooting open, Harry froze and the noise died abruptly. He looked dazed, his eyes blank, and Ron shook him again.

"Harry, what happened?" Sam asked forcefully, and Harry swallowed thickly, his eyes closing tightly. He struggled for a second to push himself up, and the three of us dived forwards to help pull him to sit up. He blinked a few times before absently beginning to rub his scar.

"I… don't know…" he gasped. "He's- he's happy…"

"Happy?" I repeated worriedly, reaching for my wand to summon a glass of water. He took it gratefully, but I kept a hold on it to assist him when he took a shaky sip.

"Happy," he repeated, "happier than he's been in a long time…"

I shared a long look with Sam. "You-Know-Who?" I clarified, and Harry nodded.

"Something's happened. Something he's been hoping for…" he replied, and I felt my body turn cold as I swallowed thickly.

"Hermione said your defenses will be lower for a little while after Snape tampers with your head," Ron attempted to comfort him. "You were probably just feeling it more intensely after your Occlumency lesson…"

Harry shook his head doubtfully, but I moved forwards quickly. "Here," I said, hoisting him to his feet with the other boys help. "Let's get you to bed. C'mon."

Slowly, we assisted him to climb the stairs. The other boys in his dorm room were still awake, looking concerned when we entered, but they were smart enough to pretend not to be. Harry was moving slowly, jerkily, and his eyes- the familiar light that they usually held was gone completely. He was shaken right to the core.

"Hey," I said quietly, gaining his attention. And for a moment, I had no idea what to say. God, I didn't think I'd ever been more terrified in my whole life. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter that I was so shaken I felt like I was about to shatter into a million pieces, because Harry had just had a mad man playing around in his head and he _needed to know that he was going to be okay. _

I stepped forward and forced his gaze to meet mine. Brushing his matted hair off of his clammy forehead, I dragged my hands down to frame his face. "You're okay. You're gonna be okay, Harry. I promise. Now go to bed… you need to sleep."

"He's there when I sleep."

His words were so soft that I nearly didn't catch it. But I did, and I lost my breath completely. For a moment, I had no idea what to say- I just threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly against me.

"It's not real," I whispered into his ear. "It's not-"

"It_ is_ real..."

"But he's not here. He's not anywhere near you… he can't hurt you."

His entire posture slackened, and he closed his eyes when I pressed a kiss against his temple. He swallowed thickly and squeezed my hand tightly, nodding. I brushed my hand through his hair one last time, before turning to leave the dormitory.

Sam followed me, shutting the door behind us. I fell back against the wall heavily, and Sam stepped towards me.

"That was awful," I whispered, and Sam reached up to rub the tear tracks still lingering on my cheeks away. "This _is _awful. You-Know-Who being ecstatically happy doesn't exactly bode very well for the rest of us, does it?"

"There's nothing we can do. Go to bed- you're practically dead on your feet," Sam said gently, and I dragged my eyes up to meet his. "We just have to… wait, I suppose."

As it turned out… we didn't have to wait very long at all.

When the Daily Prophet arrived the next morning, I had barely unfolded it when I let out a cry so loud everyone in the vicinity turned to stare at me.

Sam hurried to reach around me, grabbing the paper from where I'd dropped it on top of the food. He smoothed it out the rest of the way, and we all stared down at the cover together.

_MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN PRISON_

Ten black and white photographs filled the page, nine wizards and one witch. Some were jeering, others tapping their frame and looking insolent.

_Antonin Dolohov: convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett._

_Algernon Rookwood: convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic secrets to He Who Must Not Be Named._

Slowly I read the captions underneath each picture, until my eyes were drawn to the only female in the mix. She looked like she was screaming, laughing maniacally all the while.

I did not think I would ever forget this woman's face.

_Bellatrix Lestrange: convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom._

"Oh my God," I whimpered, my hand coming up to cover my eyes. I felt physically sick all of a sudden. "Oh my God…"

"Longbottom," Angelina said quietly from beside me. "As in…"

"Read the article," Lee ordered from across the table, and I heard Sam flipping over the page before he began to speak.

_"The Ministry of Magic announced last night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban,"_ he read aloud. "_Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, confirmed that ten high security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals."_

_"'We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped,' Fudge said last night. 'Nor do we think that the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person to ever break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals, and we beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached- they are highly dangerous.'"_

I nearly tripped in my haste to get out of the Hall- I felt like I was about to throw up on the spot. I didn't realize that I was shaking, or even that I was crying, until midway up the Entrance Hall stairs when someone spun me around to face them.

"Hey! Hey, Bree, look at me," a voice said, and I swiped my tears away to see Sam standing before me, his hands firmly holding my upper arms. "Bree-"

"That's what he was happy about!" I choked out. "He was happy because those- those _monsters_ are back on the street! Do you know who Gideon and Fabian Prewett are?! They would have been George's Uncle's! Molly's brothers! But they were murdered! And Neville's parents- these people, they kill for sport! They- they-"

I broke off into sobs, my whole body wilting against Sam's. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me upright as I cried into his chest. "They tear families apart. They're monsters-"

"Bree, I need you to calm down, you're going to have a panic attack," Sam said calmly, shifting me so his gaze met mine. "Focus on your breathing for me, Bree, okay? With me, yeah?"

I nodded shakily, my whole body feeling weak.

"So, deep breath in-" he breathed in deeply, demonstrating that I should follow, "and then a deep breath out, yeah? With me…"

For a few moments we stood there, as I just focused on regulating my breathing to copy Sam's. In, out, in out… _ten Death Eaters… _in, out, in, out… _so much death follows these people… _in, out, in, out…

"You're okay," Sam breathed out, pulling me closer to his chest when my breathing was more even, when my sobs had receded to silent tears. He brushed my hair back, leaning his forehead against mine. "It's okay, yeah?"

"Ten Death Eaters, Sam," I whispered. "They're killers... They killed Cedric, and more people are going to die, and there's nothing that we we can do..."

"There's plenty that we can do. We have the Order," Sam said firmly. "We're not standing by and letting this happen... we're Montero's, and we _fight._"

_Ten Death Eaters._

_But we're Montero's, and we fight. _

* * *

><p>I didn't really want to go to class that day, but I couldn't spend any more time thinking about the escaped Death Eaters, so I did. Sam returned to me at both meal times, sticking close to me throughout the evening, when I found myself reading a book in front of the fire, leaning against my brother until late into the night.<p>

We'd been sitting in silence for over an hour when I finally said something that had been on my mind all day.

"I thought you were mad at me."

"Hm?" Sam asked distractedly, chewing his pen as he read back over the astronomy essay he'd been working on.

"You were mad at me… about Draco."

His eyes paused where they were on his essay, and for a moment, we sat in silence- a silence suddenly so tense you could probably cut it with a knife. Eventually, he let out a sigh and turned his gaze to me.

"I'm not mad at you," he said quietly.

"You were mad yesterday."

"Because he-" Sam closed his eyes, getting his bearings, before he spoke carefully. "I don't want you to get hurt. And he'll hurt you. He will."

I took in his words before shaking my head. "I think you're wrong."

He let out a choked sort of laugh. "Of course you do. When in your life have you ever thought Toby or I were right?"

"This is different!" I argued. "I think he'll surprise you."

Sam observed me for a moment before he spoke again. "I hope he does."

I could tell by his tone that Sam was being honest. He was being honest, but he truly did not believe in any way that my relationship with Draco could turn out the way I wanted it to.

Sam went back to his essay, and soon after I quietly excused myself to go up to bed. I wanted to sleep for the next few years. I wanted to sleep, but I couldn't. All I could think of was Draco- of the Death Eaters. Of You-Know-Who. Of Callie, of James, who I hadn't heard from since their last letter, who I only knew were still okay because my Aunt had been monitoring Walden for the Order.

I thought of the Prewett's. I thought of the Longbottom's.

I thought of Cedric.

I lay awake for a long time that night, my mind racing. _If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm._

But our storm had only just begun.

* * *

><p><strong>How in the world do my chapters always end up being SO LONG? This is only HALF of what I had planned for this chapter! HALF! So this one is a bit slow, but when I finish up next chapter (previously the end of this chapter), it should be a lot more interesting. Should be up in a week or two- I'm still technically in my university exam block, heh.<strong>

**In addition, I had an anonymous reviewer ask if I planned on stopping after Order of the Phoenix, and the answer is no! I have plans for this story all the way through til the end of number 7! Y'all still got a lot of Breezy to come! **


	30. The Friends Who Blackmail Together

**Another long one ahead, and a lot of it is from the book, but I had to pump it out because it's important to the plot. I plan my chapters and never think they'll end up this big but here we are... **

**But in other news this is my second chapter in under a week which I'm really really excited about! As you all are VERY aware I'm not so good with timely updates, I kind of just pump out a chunk of writing when inspiration hits me, but TWO IN A WEEK! The power of procrastination during exam time.**

* * *

><p>There was only one topic of conversation in the school for the next few days: the ten escaped Death Eaters. Rumors were flying about at an alarming pace- one of the more popular ones was that the Death Eaters had all been spotted in Hogsmeade, that they were hiding in the Shrieking Shack and were planning to break into Hogwarts as, apparently, Sirius had once done when first escaped from Azkaban (I felt I'd have to speak to him about that).<p>

It was logical, really. Blaming the whole thing on Sirius. George pointed out that Fudge could hardly come out now after six months of calling Harry and Dumbledore liars and say "haha yeah Dumbledore warned me this would happen, that the Azkaban guards would give the Ministry the old middle finger salute before joining You-Know-Who, who is in fact back in business and ready to kill every single one of us."

Not exactly a likely headline.

But regardless of who was being blamed, this news was huge. The crimes that these people had committed during You-Know-Who's reign of terror were legendary. There were relatives of their victims amongst the student body, who now found themselves the unwilling objects of a gruesome sort of reflected fame as they walked the corridors.

And though as unexpected as it was, something kind of good came from the whole thing.

The escape of the ten Death Eaters renewed much of the muttering about Harry, but quite a bit of it was no longer as hostile as it had been- rather, it was curious. A few times, we managed to overhear a few snippets of conversation that suggested that the speakers were no longer satisfied with the Ministry's version of how and why ten Death Eaters had managed to escape the high security prison of Azkaban. In the confusion and fear, these doubters appeared to be turning to the only other explanation available to them: Harry's and Dumbledore's.

It wasn't just the student's moods who had changed- it was now common to come across two or three teachers conversing in low, urgent whispers in the corridors, breaking off their conversations the moment they saw students approaching.

"They obviously can't talk freely in the staff room anymore," Hermione said in a low voice as she, Harry, Ron, Sam, and myself passed McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout huddled together outside of the Charms classroom one day. "Not with Umbridge there."

"Do you reckon they know anything new?" asked Ron, glancing back over his shoulder at the three teachers.

"Likely not," Sam replied. "Wouldn't matter, either way."

"Yeah- if they do, we're not going to hear about it, are we?" Harry asked bitterly.

I snorted. "Not after Decree… Merlin, what number are we up to now?"

Of course, I was referring to Educational Decree number 26, which had appeared on the House notice boards the morning after the news of the escaped prisoners had broken.

_'By order of the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts_

_Teachers are hereby banned from giving students any information that is not strictly related to the subject that they are paid to teach.'_

Umbridge really hadn't taken into consideration the finality of her words and the creativeness of school children when she formulated that one. Not even a full day later, Fred and George were caught playing Exploding Snap in the back of her classroom as she rambled on about more spell casting theory. When she had told them off, Lee spoke up.

"But, Professor- by the terms of the new Educational Decree, you can't say that to them. Exploding Snap hasn't got anything to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts- that's not information relating to your subject!"

It had truly taken everything within my power to not laugh out loud at this declaration. Later that night when Lee had returned from Umbridge's detention, George and I had been waiting with a bowl of fresh Murtlap essence.

The news of the escaped Death Eaters served one more purpose. Every single member of the DA had been spurred on to work harder than ever. I was feeling more and more confident with every lesson in my abilities in defensive magic, and an improvement was really visible in everyone.

Nobody more so than Neville.

Sweet Neville was changed by the news of his parents attackers freedom. This change was strange and actually sort of alarming. He barely spoke in DA meetings anymore, but rather kept his head down and worked relentlessly to master every new spell Harry taught us. He was improving so fast it was incredible, and when Harry taught us a Shield Charm, only Hermione mastered it faster than Neville.

"You did amazingly today, Neville," I complimented him after class. He looked startled for a second when I patted his shoulder, but he soon shot me a smile before he left for the Common Room.

"Do you think he's alright?" a voice asked from behind me, and I turned to smile at Ginny.

"I'm not sure. He's trying. I suppose he'll have to be though, won't he?"

"Hmm," Ginny replied. "And will you?"

My head shot back up to look at her, and I realized very belatedly that my little breakdown a few days ago hadn't been very private. Ginny must have stumbled across it, but stayed silent until this point.

"It was just… overwhelming, you know? But I'll be okay." _I'll have to be. _"I think we all will."

"Very true," Ginny nodded, before a sly smirk overtook her features. "So, you got any plans for Valentine's Day?"

Ah, I'd almost completely forgotten about the approaching holiday! "Hmm... I'll probably be spending it with Jason, I suppose."

"Jason Dawes?" she clarified, grinning widely when I nodded. "Damn girl, he is _so cute!"_

I laughingly agreed, but not before overhearing Fred mutter from behind us something that sounded like "traitor."

As it turns out though, my plans for Valentine's Day would not be coming into fruition.

"Detention?" I repeated, and Jason nodded sadly. He brushed my hair behind my ear, framing my face with his hands and bringing my gaze up to meet his.

"I'm sorry, love… Detention with Snape on Valentine's Day."

I couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Sounds like you're going to be having a very romantic day. When were you planning on telling me that you and Snape were an item?"

Rolling his eyes, he tried to hide his grin. "Oh har bloody har! I was going to suggest that we celebrate our own Valentine's in a few days, but maybe I should ask Snape?"

"No, that sounds lovely!" I replied. "What were you thinking?"

"Can't tell you that, it'll spoil the surprise. It'll be fun though- wait and see. I have to head up to Charms now, but how about it- meet me in the Entrance Hall at 7pm Friday?"

He kissed me quickly before hurrying up the stairs, and I sighed before turning and heading into the Great Hall. Guess my Valentine's was going to be a ladies one this year.

I wasn't left to sulk for long.

"Hey, Bree, what are you doing on Valentine's Day?"

Turning, I saw Hermione drop down in the seat across from me. "Nothing, actually. Why?"

"Oh, fantastic!" Hermione cried excitedly. "Will you come with me to the Three Broomsticks, around midday?"

My eyebrows raised. "Wow, I didn't know you swung that way- I mean, I'm really flattered, Hermione, you're a beautiful girl, but-"

"_Not_ like that, you pervert," came Sam's voice as he dropped into the seat beside me. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Bree."

I frowned. "Well, what, someone asks me to meet them at a bar on Valentine's Day, what's my first thought going to be?" I sulked.

Hermione caught my attention again. "I've set up a meeting for Harry with Rita Skeeter. For too long the only explanation people have had has come from the Prophet- no more. Rita is going to publish Harry's side of the story."

It took me a moment to understand. "Wait, hang on- you mean that old hag who spent all of last year trash talking Harry?"

"Yes, that old bag," Sam replied, helping himself to some pumpkin juice. "She's unemployed now, actually, and Hermione happens to have something on her that will ensure this article includes _no _trash talking."

Grinning, I side eyed Hermione. "You're blackmailing her?"

Hermione flushed. "I wouldn't call it that!"

"Whatever we're calling it," Sam said, "I thought you might want to be there. And I thought that Harry might like having you there, too."

My gaze softened. "Then of course I'll be there. For Harry."

* * *

><p>I spent my Valentine's morning with Angelina, Fred, and George. Lee, of course, was off celebrating with his flavor-of-the-week due to the fact that Valentine's was one of his favorite holidays of the year. Katie was meeting up with Jason's friend Dan, and interestingly enough, Alicia's betrothed from my house party was coming down to spend the day with her in Hogsmeade. Who'd have bloody predicted that one?!<p>

My morning was lovely despite not having a date. The sun was shining, so we settled ourselves by the Black Lake to enjoy it. The boys had just finished another game of Exploding Snap when I glanced at my watch and saw that I should be heading down to the Three Broomsticks soon. George offered to come with me, and Fred and Angelina said they'd lug all our things back up to the Common Room before meeting George at Zonko's.

"So- no date's on Valentine's Day?" I asked when we were halfway to the Village, and George shot me a cheeky grin. "Frankly, I'm shocked!"

"Nah, decided to spend the morning with my best girl," he replied, threading his fingers through mine, and he laughed at my sudden blush. I swallowed thickly, tightening my hand around his and resolutely ignoring the increasingly familiar tenseness in my stomach and heat of my face.

"You're such a smooth talker," I accused and he nodded.

"That I am."

"I'm serious! Why the lack of ladies? I know for a fact that three separate girls were planning to ask you."

He shrugged. "Why bother? Valentine's Day is meaningless if you gotta spend it with someone you barely even know. It's a good holiday when you love someone, but if not, then what's the point?"

"You… make a really good point, actually," I replied, and he grinned.

"Duh, I know," he said, pulling me closer to his side. "And what about you, lovely Miss Montero? Why aren't you spending today with Dawes?"

"Jason had detention with Snape."

"Killer. But… apart from that? Everything good with him?" he asked, his voice suddenly holding a tenseness that had not been present a moment ago, despite his efforts to disguise it.

Truthfully? I had no idea. So I just hummed my agreement, and he didn't push it any further. I knew he didn't like Jason, and didn't really want to hear about him.

As usual, he dropped a kiss to my head before we parted ways, and usual a flush appeared on my face in response. Shaking myself, I turned and headed into the Three Broomsticks, to find Hermione and Sam sitting with a blonde girl from the DA and Rita Skeeter herself.

If I never saw Rita again, it would be too soon. And yet here we were. Unemployment didn't suit her; the bright blonde hair that had once been done in elaborate curls now hung lank and unkempt around her face. The scarlet paint on her two inch talons was chipped and there were a couple of false jewels missing from her winged glasses. She still had her acid green Quick Quotes Quill with her though, still on the lookout for the next story.

"Bree!" Sam greeted with a wave, pulling up a chair for me to sit beside him. "It's so good you could make it- have you ever met Luna before?"

"No, I haven't," I replied, sticking my hand out for this new blonde girl to shake. "I've seen you in the DA meetings but we've never spoken- I'm Bree Montero."

"I'm Luna Lovegood," she replied in a vague, but friendly sort of tone, and I realized I'd heard her name before. Or, a variation of it. _Loony Lovegood, _some people called her. I'd heard that she was quite odd, but that still seemed cruel. She seemed very friendly, at the least.

"It's really nice to meet you, Luna! And may I say I love your earings- they're very interesting," I said, looking at her odd berry shaped earrings.

"Thank you," she replied sincerely, "they keep away the Nargles."

"Oh, do they?" I asked, not actually having any idea what a Nargle was. "Well, alright, maybe I should get myself a pair. Fashionable and useful."

Rita let out a long suffering sigh before muttering something to herself, and I shot her a glare. "Long time no see, Rita. How are you?"

"Would be better, if I knew what I was here for," she said simply, glaring daggers at Hermione, who merely brushed her off.

"You'll know soon enough. Here's Harry now," she said, standing and waving to said boy, who was standing in the doorway. He made his way over to his, looking surprised to see Rita.

"You're early," Hermione said cheerfully, moving along so he could settle between the two of us. "I thought you were with Cho, I wasn't expecting you for another half an hour at least!"

"Cho?" Rita said at once, twisting in her seat to stare avidly at Harry. "A _girl?"_

"Cho, as in Cho from Ravenclaw?" I repeated, doing the same. "Harry, were you on a _date?"_

He looked alarmed at this double attack, and I reigned myself in when Sam elbowed me.

"It's none of your business if Harry's been with a hundred girls, Rita," Hermione said cooly, "so you can put that away right now."

I noticed then that her quill was ready to go, until she lowered it in annoyance.

"Um… what exactly is going on here?" Harry asked in confusion, and I realized very suddenly that Harry did not know a thing about this interview. Hermione had certainly failed to mention that.

"Little Miss Perfect was just about to tell me when you arrived," Rita said coolly. Oh, okay, neither does Rita. Fantastic job, Granger.

This whole plan is going swimmingly, isn't it?

Rita took a large sip of her drink before muttering out of the corner of her mouth, "pretty girl, is she, Harry?"

"One more word about Harry's love life and the deal's off the table, and that's a promise," Hermione said flatly.

"What deal? You haven't mentioned a deal yet, Miss Prissy, you just told me to turn up. Oh, one of these days…" Rita trailed off, taking a deep, shuddering breath.

"Yes, yes, one of these days you'll go back to writing more horrible stories about Harry and me," said Hermione indifferently. "Find someone who cares, why don't you?"

"Well, they've run plenty of horrible stories about Harry this year without my help," Rita said, shooting a sideways glance at said boy over the top of her glass and adding in a whisper. "How has that made you feel, Harry? Betrayed? Distraught? Misunderstood?"

"He feels angry, of course," said Hermione in a hard, clear voice, "because he's told the Minister for Magic the truth and the Minister's too much of an idiot to believe him."

"So you actually stick to it, do you, that He Who Must Not Be Named is back?" said Rita, lowering her glasses and subjecting Harry to a piercing stare whilst her fingers strayed longingly back down to her quill. "You stand by all this garbage Dumbledore's been telling everybody about You-Know-Who returning and you being the sole witness?"

"I wasn't the sole witness," Harry snarled, "there were a dozen-odd Death Eaters there as well. Want their names?"

"I'd love them," Rita breathed out, now staring at Harry as though he were the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. "A great, bold headline: '_Potter Accuses…' _A sub heading, '_Harry Potter names Death Eaters Still Among Us." _And then, underneath, a big photograph of you… '_Disturbed teenage survivor of You-Know-Who's attack, Harry Potter, 15, caused outrage yesterday by accusing respectable and prominent members of the wizarding community of being Death Eaters…'"_

And suddenly, the rapturous expression on her face died. "But of course, Little Miss Perfect wouldn't want that story out there, would she?"

"Actually, that's exactly what Little Miss Perfect does want," Hermione said cheerily.

Harry stared at her in amazement. So did Rita. Sam and I just sat there sort of uncomfortably.

"You _want _me to report what he says about He Who Must Not Be Named?" Rita asked in a hushed voice.

"The _truth_ this time. All the facts," Sam spoke up, "Exactly as Harry reports them. He'll give you all the details, he'll tell you the names of the undiscovered Death Eaters he saw there, he'll tell you what You Know Who looks like now."

Rita stared at my brother for a moment. "The Prophet wouldn't print it," she said blandly. "In case you haven't noticed, nobody believes that cock-and-bull story- and the Prophet won't print a story that shows him in a good light. It's against the public mood!"

"So the Daily Prophet exists to tell people what they want to hear, does it?" I asked scathingly.

Rita sat back in her seat, before draining her glass of Firewhisky. "The Prophet exists to sell itself, you silly girl," she said flatly.

"My Dad thinks it's an awful paper," Luna finally spoke up. "He publishes important stories he thinks the public need to know. He doesn't care about making money."

Rita looked disparagingly at Luna. "I'm guessing your Father runs some stupid little village newsletter?"

"No. He's the editor of the Quibbler."

Rita snorted so loudly the people at nearby tables turned around in alarm. Shit, I knew where she was coming from- the Quibbler? That's where we're planning to publish this? The magazine wasn't exactly full of hard hitting news, and that was putting it politely.

Rita had no interest in putting it politely. "I could manure my garden with the contents of that rag."

"Well, this is your chance to raise the tone a little bit, then," Sam said. "Luna's Father is the one who'll be publishing the interview."

Rita stared at us all for a moment, before letting out a loud whoop of laughter. "The Quibbler!" she cried, cackling. "You think people will take him seriously if he's published in the Quibbler?!"

"Some people won't," Hermione said in a level voice.

"The Daily Prophet's version of the Azkaban breakout has some pretty gaping holes in it," I pointed out. "I think a lot of people will be wondering whether there isn't a better explanation of what happened- and if there's an alternative story available…"

"They might be pretty keen to read it," Sam finished.

Rita side eyed us. "Right, let's say for a moment I'll do it," she said abruptly. "What kind of a fee am I going to get?"

"The fee is that I don't tell the authorities that you're an unregistered Animagus," Hermione said flatly. "Of course, the Prophet might give you rather a lot for an insider's account of life in Azkaban."

If looks could kill, Hermione would be six feet under. I, on the other hand, was cheering internally.

"Well, I don't suppose I've got any choice, do I?" said Rita, her fury thinly veiled as she reached down to pick up her crocodile skin bag, pulling her reporting utensils out of it.

I turned to Harry as she prepared herself. "You ready to tell the public the truth?" I asked cheerily, and he swallowed nervously.

"I suppose," he said, and under the table I reached out and threaded my fingers through his, squeezing tightly. He seemed to gain some of his color back.

Hermione grinned at Rita. "Fire away."

The experience that followed was not a pleasant one. Rita had pushed Harry for every single small detail of the evening when Cedric had died and You-Know-Who had returned, and Harry had given her everything he could remember. It became apparent early on why Sam had wanted me there. Harry was the bravest person I knew, but talking about this was hard for him. There were multiple times he squeezed my hand so tightly I thought he was cutting off the circulation, and he didn't even seem to realize.

It was hard to hear. I'd heard him talk about that night before, but never in this much depth. Never had I heard him talk about how Voldemort had looked, how it felt to look into his red eyes… how, exactly, he'd killed Cedric. I wanted to speak up when he named Lucius Malfoy as a Death Eater, but I couldn't. How could I ever be so selfish as to ask for that not to be published, because I knew how it would affect Draco? Draco didn't deserve it, but Lucius did. So I stayed silent.

When we left, we were all worse for wear. Hermione stayed inside the Three Broomsticks with Rita, saying she'd meet us back up at the school. Luna told us that the interview would be published within the next few weeks before she headed further into the village, but the rest of us turned to head back up to Hogwarts.

"You okay?" I asked Harry, and it took him a moment, but he nodded all the same.

"Yeah, I'm good. I'm really good, actually… it feels good to get the truth out there. It feels good to be doing something to fight him."

My emotions hit me like a wave, and I felt so damn proud of this boy in that second. "Good," I replied weakly, clearing my throat. "And I suppose your date with Cho Chang probably contributed to you feeling so good…"

"It wasn't…" he faltered under my stare, and gave in. "Alright, so it was sort of a date."

"And how did it go?! What happened?!"

Harry grimaced- before he dived straight into it. "She asked me if Cedric mentioned her before he died, and then she started crying! Like, right there, in the middle of the restaurant! What the bloody hell did she want to talk about Cedric for?! Why can't the girl ever bring up a topic of conversation that doesn't turn her into a human hose pipe?!"

I winced sympathetically. "Oh, so, all in all not such a romantic day, huh?"

Snorting, Sam grinned at me. "Nah, not particularly, hey."

"Won't be a second date?" I guessed, and Harry frowned.

"I'm not really sure if she's talking to me anymore," he said flatly. "Women are crazy."

"True," I agreed, "but you get used to dealing with us."

"I'm not sure about that," Sam disagreed, and I turned my attention to him.

"And what about you?" I shot at him, and he grinned.

"Spent the morning with Hannah! She's wonderful. I certainly had much more fun than you two did this morning."

"Hey, how do you know I didn't have a good Valentine's Day?" I asked, offended.

Sam looked up at me innocently. "Because your boyfriend had detention with Snape. Unless, of course, you're telling me that you find spending time with George Weasley significantly more desirable than spending time with Jason Dawes?"

"Well- I mean, of course I love spending time with George! He's my best friend!" I defended.

"Yeah? Harry's my best friend, but that doesn't mean I'd prefer to hang out with him instead of spending my time making out with a pretty girl."

I made a face. "Ew, Sam."

He raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I'm just saying, Bree- consider your choices. If Hannah couldn't spend today with me, I'd be devastated. I'm totally smitten by her. If you don't feel that way in Jason's absence, maybe he's not the guy for you."

He changed the topic of conversation then, but I had stopped listening. Because in truth, what my brother had said had hit me pretty hard.

Jason was lovely. I genuinely enjoyed him as a person, but I never really felt the sort of… _spark_ you usually hear of when people talk about their significant others.

Not to mention that despite the fact that we'd been sort of exclusively hooking up for about two months now, we… weren't really together. We weren't each other's significant other. He wasn't my boyfriend, I wasn't his girlfriend, we were just sort of… hanging out, I suppose, and yet not _together_.

That was weird, right? And it was even weirder that… I kind of didn't have an issue with it. Why did I not have an issue with it? And why did the idea of things progressing to the next level make me feel really nervous, and not in a pleasant way?

_Like the pleasant sort of nervousness I'm filled with whenever George touches me. _

No. I kicked that thought out before it had even fully formed.

My mind was just a swirl of confusion. I decided not to think about it for the rest of the day- My next date with Jason was in a few days, I could work things out then.

* * *

><p>Dinner that night was a rowdy affair. Katie and Lee refused to stop talking about their fantastic Valentine's Day's, and nobody wanted to stop them. Their excitement was contagious. Alicia, though always quieter than the rest of the gang, was absolutely glowing. Her former fiancé never failed to put a smile on her face, and actually getting to spend a day with him, the first one since school had started back, had made her so happy. It was adorable.<p>

I was just leaving the Hall with the girls when arms threaded around my waist, and I turned to have a pair of lips press down on my own. Pulling back, I smiled up at Jason.

"Jason! Happy Valentine's Day!" I said, and he grinned before kissing me. Again, I was the one to pull back a moment later. "How was your date with Snape?"

"With- who? What? Oh, yeah," he said, shaking his head. "Yeah, it was tedious. Pretty standard- Snape's not exactly a bundle of laughs. How was yours?"

"It was interesting. I spent the day with Harry, he…" I trailed off. Was I supposed to say anything? Figuring it wouldn't matter in a few weeks, I pushed ahead. "He gave an interviewer to a reporter, about what happened to him last June. It'll be published in a few weeks."

His eyebrows raised higher and higher the longer I spoke. "You don't mean… not Harry Potter?" he laughed. "Last June? As in that story he's been spouting about You-Know-Who? Merlin, Bree, you can't actually believe that!"

I pushed back from him rather violently. "Yes, I do," I said lowly, dangerously. "I believe him because it's the truth."

"Oh, Bree… of course," he said appeasingly, stepping back towards me. "I'm sorry. You know that I don't want to fight with you, love."

Narrowing my eyes, I folded my arms across my chest. Nonetheless, I let him wrap his arms around my shoulders and pull me close. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I need to head off, but I'll see you on Friday, yeah? Our Valentine's Day?"

I nodded, and he kissed my cheek before hurrying off. My brother's words rattled around in my head for the rest of the night, despite me telling myself repeatedly that I wouldn't think about it.

* * *

><p>I had barely seen my friends for weeks leading up to today. The moment was finally here- the first Gryffindor Quidditch match of the season. The team would be going up against Slytherin, and to say that Angelina was even more neurotic than usual… would be a serious understatement.<p>

"Listen to me, Harry," she attempted to pep talk the night before the match. "You're a brilliant seeker- I need you to be on you're A game tomorrow, kid. Now you catch that snitch for me, or you die trying."

My head shot up. 'Woah, woah, woah, woah!" I nearly shouted. "That's a bit extreme! Harry, please don't die. It's a game, after all- the main goal is to have fun and play your best!"

Everyone turned to stare at me. Eventually, Lee broke the silence that had descended.

"What the fuck are you on about?"

"Merlin, you're like a holiday greeting card," Fred muttered. "You know, there is a such thing as being _too _cheerful."

I rolled my eyes, as Angelina turned back to Harry, staring him down so hard he became visibly uncomfortable. "Or die trying," she repeated.

All in all, we were all quite confident in Gryffindor's chances at winning. The main problem at this point was Ron. He was a good player- he had a fair amount of talent, but he just became so damn nervous when people were watching him play. I'd seen him make some truly spectacular saves during the practices I watched, particularly one incident when he'd hung one handed from his broom and kicked the Quaffle so hard away from the goal hoop that it soared the length of the pitch and went through the center hoop at the other end. Even Fred had said that Ron might yet make him and George proud, and that they were seriously considering admitting he was related to them, something they assured him that they had been trying to deny for years.

However, those saves were all in private. We couldn't exactly ask the hundreds of people viewing the match to turn away every time the Quaffle went anywhere near him.

Ron's behavior the morning of the match was not promising. His hands were shaking so badly he could hardly take a sip of Pumpkin Juice without slopping it all over himself, and whenever I tried to get him to eat he turned a delicate shade of green.

"I must've been mental to do this," he croaked. "Mental."

"Don't be thick," Harry said. 'You're going to be fine. It's normal to be nervous."

"I'm rubbish… I can't play to save my life. What was I thinking?"

"Oh, Ron," I said, wrapping my arm around him and kissing his cheek. Fred and George raised their eyebrows, but didn't speak. "You'll be fine, I have full confidence in you. I've watched you play- you're fantastic!"

But nothing I, or anybody else, said could make him stop shaking. Eventually Hermione and Ginny joined us, and I was about to greet them when a dreamy voice sounded from behind me.

"Hello."

I turned, and nearly had a heart attack. Luna was standing behind us, having drifted over from the Ravenclaw table, with a large hat sitting on her head that was shaped like a life-sized lion's head. Many people were staring, and a few were openly laughing and pointing.

It was… quite the sight.

"I'm supporting Gryffindor," she said, pointing rather unnecessarily at the hat. "Look what it does…"

She reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth wide and gave an extremely realistic and extremely loud roar that made everyone in the Hall jump.

"Oh my God," I whispered, barely able to refrain from laughing. "Luna, it's brilliant! Will you come watch the game with us?"

"Oh, that would be lovely," she said with another dreamy smile, settling beside me. "I just came over to wish Ronald good luck."

Ron still just looked queasy. After about ten more minutes, it became apparent that Ron wasn't going to be able to eat anything, and Harry stood to lead them down to the pitch. At that second, Sam appeared, looking rather panicked. He leaned down to hiss urgently in Harry's ear "don't let Ron see the Slytherin badges!"

Glancing up curiously, I saw my brother shaking his head firmly at Harry's questioning look, before he turned and put on a bright smile for Ron. "Good luck, mate! You'll be great!"

An unpleasant feeling began to settle in my stomach at Sam's still panicked eyes. When the twins stood to leave, I got to my feet too. Followed by the rest of the gang, we headed down to the pitch. Leaving George with a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek, I led us up to where Lee would be commentating the match, keeping my eyes peeled for any Slytherins.

It didn't take me long to find out what Sam was worried about: on almost every Slytherin student's chest was a bright, crown shaped badge with the words 'Weasley is our King.'

"Oh, this can mean nothing good," Hermione breathed.

We reached Lee soon enough, and he greeted me with a wide grin. "Breezy!" he called gleefully, wrapping me in a hug. "Who's pumped for a great fucking game! I've- oh shit!"

He had caught sight of Luna's hat, and nearly jumped a foot in the air in fright.

"It's brilliant, isn't it?" I asked with a grin. Luna smiled up at me.

"I wanted to have it chewing up a serpent to represent Slytherin, you know, but I just didn't have time."

Slowly, the stands begun to fill. Just as Angelina stepped forward to shake the Slytherin captain's hand down on the pitch, McGonagall appeared and settled behind us.

"Now, Jordan," she said sternly. "I want a good, clean, and _unbiased _commentary from you today."

"No worries, Professor," Lee replied airily. "Good, clean, unbiased, got it!"

"You say that," she replied, "and yet I still have to warn you before every match."

He simply grinned, just as Madam Hooch raised her whistle and signaled that the game had begun.

Raising the speaker to his mouth, Lee begun to speak. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second Quidditch match of the season- Gryffindor versus Slytherin! What a fantastic day it is for a little bit of ball hitting-" ten seconds in, and McGonagall was already groaning from behind us, "-now fasten your seatbelts and get ready to rumble, because with tensions running high these past few weeks it's going to be a big one!"

Down on the pitch, Angelina came up from underneath the Slytherin Chaser and grabbed the Quaffle. "Oh, fantastic catch from Johnson! Johnson with the Quaffle, tearing down the pitch- what a fantastic player that girl is, I've been saying it for years but she still won't go out with me-"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor, just a fun fact, adds a bit of interest- and she's ducked Warrington, she's passed Montague, she's- oh! Ouch… She's been hit from behind by a bludger by Crabbe…"

I winced and let out a groan with the rest of the Gryffindor's as the Quaffle fell to a Slytherin.

"Montague with the Quaffle, heading back up the pitch- oh! And a _fantastic_ bludger there from George Weasley! I've got Weasley's future wife here, Bree Montero, would you like to give us a statement on that hit?"

Flushing furiously, I laughed loudly and smacked the microphone away from me. Just audible over the pitch was McGonagall telling him to get back to commentating the game.

"Right you are, Professor! But how can I help it, these two are just destined for each other! And there's George Weasley giving me the finger down on the pitch- that's a bit rude, Professor, I think a detention would be appropriate here- no? No detention? Right then, and Katie Bell of Gryffindor has snatched the Quaffle and reverse passes to Alicia Spinnet- and Spinnet's away!"

Quidditch was never something I was altogether too interested in, so I watched with slight amusement as the Quaffle kept ducking from one player to the next, only vaguely listening to Lee's commentary. Then, something else caught my ears.

"-Spinnet dodges Warrington, avoids a bludger- close call, Alicia- and the crowd are loving this! Just listen to them, what's that they're singing?"

That's it- it was singing! As Lee stopped to listen, the song rose loud and clear- from the green and silver crowd on the other side of the pitch. And my heart sank.

"_Weasley cannot save a thing,_

_He cannot block a single ring,_

_That's why Slytheriin's all sing:_

_Weasley is our king!_

_Weasley was born in a bin,_

_He always lets the Quaffle in,_

_Weasley will make sure we win,_

_Weasley is our king!"_

"AND ALICIA PASSES BACK TO ANGELINA!" Lee shouted in an attempt to drown out the words of the song- but it was completely unsuccessful. "Come on now, Angelina, looks like she's got just the Keeper to beat! SHE SHOOTS- SHE- aaaah…"

The Slytherin keeper had saved the goal. He threw the Quaffle to his team mates, and as the green blurs darted up the pitch, the volume of the song increased. The closer to Ron they got, the louder it got.

"IGNORE IT, RON! FOCUS!" I screamed, but he didn't hear- and soon, the singing turned into a scream of delight. Ron had dived wildly, his arms wide, and the Quaffle had soared straight through Ron's central hoop.

"Slytherin score," Lee said, "ten-nil to Slytherin… bad luck, Ron…"

_"WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN,_

_HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN…"_

The volume of the singing kept getting louder, and soon Lee was struggling to make himself heard above it. The game slowly deteriorated for the Gryffindor's- Ron let in every goal, and the rest of the team was visible frazzled, until the game score was at sixty-nil for Slytherin.

"-Okay, so Pucey is off past Spinnet with the Quaffle, come on now, Angelina, you can take him- alright, turns out you can't- but nice Bludger from Fred Weasley- I mean George- oh, who cares, it's one of them, anyway- and Warrington drops the Quaffle, and Katie Bell- oh, er, drops it too- so that's Montague with the Quaffle-"

The rest of Lee's words were drowned out by a loud roar from Luna's hat, making everyone in the box jump. By the time we turned back to the pitch, something was happening- Harry had entered into a steep dive, and Draco was right behind him.

It was over in just a second- Harry pulled back upwards with his fist raised high, and it took a moment for everybody to realize what had happened.

"POTTER'S DONE IT! POTTER'S GOT THE SNITCH!" Lee shouted, and I jumped to my feet with a scream. However, my elated tone soon turned to one of horror when Crabbe hit a bludger into Harry's back. "SHIT!"

"JORDAN!"

Lee was no longer listening. He'd dropped the microphone, and we were already hurrying towards the exit, followed by Sam and Hermione. We reached the pitch just as Angelina pulled Harry to his feet, and he shook his head dazedly.

"Are you alright?" I cried.

"Yeah, of course I am," he said, grimly, rubbing the back of his neck. A body appeared next to me, and I turned to see George. I grinned and was about to speak when a voice called from behind us.

"Saved Weasley's neck, haven't you?"

Turning, I saw the familiar face of Draco Malfoy. White faced with fury, he was still managing to sneer.

"I've never seen a worse Keeper… but then, he was born in a bin. Did you like my lyrics, Potter?"

Harry didn't answer, and I grabbed George's arm to turn him away from Draco. He'd just lost- it was understandable that he was angry, but this wasn't the way to deal with it. Catching Draco's eye, I shook my head slightly before turning to George.

"Future wife, huh?" George teased, nudging me, and I grinned up at him. "When was I to be informed of our pending nuptials?"

"Oh, well, I'm still working out whether we should have unicorns or phoenixes bring us our rings at the altar, so I didn't want to worry you until I'd worked out the kinks."

"We wanted to write another couple of versus!" Draco called louder, "but we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly- we wanted to sing about his mother, see- and we couldn't fit in useless loser, either, for his Father-"

Fred and George had both frozen- they'd realized what he was talking about.

"George," I called, "ignore him- George!"

"Leave it!" Angelina cried, grabbing Fred's arm as he turned towards Draco. "Leave him, Fred! He's just lost, of course he's bitter-"

"But you like the Weasley's, don't you, Potter?" Draco continued, sneering. "Spend holidays there and everything, don't you? Can't see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by Muggles, even the Weasley's hovel smells okay!"

I wrapped my arms around George as he set off towards Draco, and Harry and Sam jumped on him, too, pushing him back away from the Slytherin. Glancing over, I saw that it was taking the combined efforts of Angelina, Alicia, and Katie to keep Fred from leaping on him. As Draco opened his mouth to continue, I spun towards him, still keeping my arms around George.

"DRACO! STOP IT!" I screamed, and simultaneously everyone froze where they stood, their heads turning towards me in shock. George reached out to me, and I knew why- none of them had ever seen me this angry before. Fred had once confessed that I was always so gentle, he didn't believe I was physically capable of real anger. But I was, and when I did… _"Leave them alone!_ Just walk away!_"_

For a moment, Draco stared at me in surprise, but then his sneer returned- and it had doubled in intensity. "And you like the Weasleys, too, don't you Montero? Don't see why… Potter, on the other hand, I can understand. Perhaps you can remember what your Mother's house stank like, Potter, and the Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it-"

Harry released George, and without his weight, Sam and I couldn't hold him. George pushed out of my hold, and before I knew it the two were sprinting at Malfoy.

"NO! GEORGE, DON'T!" I screamed, and I was only vaguely aware of Hermione yelling for Madam Hooch as I took off after them, Lee and Sam hot on my tail. "GEORGE!"

They didn't bother with their wands- they caught Draco easily, and just drew their fists back and started hitting him. I smacked into George _hard_, leaping onto his back and wrapping my arms around him, trying desperately to pull him off of Draco as Lee helped. George was swearing at us to get off, still hitting out at Draco, as Sam launched himself at Harry and shoved him to the ground. But he leapt up, and came back for more.

"IMPEDIMENTA!"

The force of the spell knocked us all to the ground, me still clutching to George's shoulders as we all fell into a heap.

'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Madam Hooch was screaming at us- she was the one who had hit us with the Impediment Jinx. I glanced over to see Draco curled on the ground, whimpering and moaning, his nose bloody; George's lip was swollen, and Harry was already bruising. Crabbe and Goyle were cackling in the background, and Fred was still being forcibly restrained by the girls.

"Up to the castle, both of you! Straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now!"

George didn't look at me as he stood and strode off the pitch, and for a moment I just lay there, staring after him and Harry before somebody pulled me to my feet. Sam was panting above me, glaring ferociously down at Draco, who I noticed was now looking at us and clutching his nose, still whimpering.

And a shock of fury hit me like a tidal wave.

"Don't you _ever _come near me _again!_" I screamed furiously at him, shaking as the urge to hit him myself nearly overwhelmed me- I might have, if Sam hadn't wrapped a restraining arm around me. "_How dare you! _Stay the _fuck _away from me and my family!"

He didn't say a word as Sam turned me, and we headed back over to the rest of the team. Hermione was nearly in tears- Ron, nowhere to be found, and Fred still shaking with fury. Draco was still lying there when we left the pitch, but I didn't turn back to him once.

* * *

><p>When George returned to the Common Room later that night, I launched myself at him so violently I nearly knocked him clean off his feet. He didn't make a joke like he usually would- he wrapped his arms around me so tightly it forced the air clean out of my body, as Harry delivered the news.<p>

"Banned," Angelina repeated in a hollow voice.

"Banned for life," George corrected croakily against my shoulder, and I clutched him tighter.

"No seeker and no beaters… What are we going to do?" Angelina breathed.

"What about Crabbe?!" Alicia cried. "What about the bludger he hit after the whistle had been blown?! Has Umbridge banned him?!"

"Of course not," Ginny said miserably. "He just got lines- Montague was laughing about it at dinner."

"And banning Fred, when he didn't even do anything!" Alicia cried furiously.

"It's not my fault I didn't," Fred said with a very ugly look on his face. "I would've pounded the little scumbag to a pulp if you three hadn't been holding me back."

George tightened his grip on me again. I ran my hand through his hair, like he always did for me, and pulled back to look at him. Cupping his cheek gently, I forced his gaze to meet mine. "I'm so sorry," I said quietly. "I know how much Quidditch means to you."

I had never seen George like this before- so upset. I _hated _it. It was awful. I never wanted my Georgie to be unhappy. He was always so cheerful and upbeat, but there was a darkness behind his hooded gaze that I never wanted to see again. He always deserved to have his brilliant, bright smile on his face, and I would gladly spend the rest of my life putting and keeping it there.

The thought flew out before I even realized I'd formed it, and I pulled back slightly in shock. But I went back to him immediately- George desperately needed me right now. I couldn't pull away from him, as I had been lately, because of my confused emotions. It wasn't fair.

Eventually, George picked me up and moved us to the couch, never unwrapping his arms from around me. He didn't speak. Not for a really long time, and neither did anybody else. These boys loved Quidditch so much, and now they were banned- I felt my heart physically aching for George. And Draco, whom I had _defended… _time and time again. I closed my eyes, and rested further against George. I had defended him, and now look at what's happened because of him, because of a side of him that was always there but that I'd never allowed myself to see.

Never again.

* * *

><p><strong>As always, hope you enjoyed. Drop me a line kids! Next chapter is a BIG one, let's resolve our issues with Jason, shall we? <strong>


End file.
